I am not the type of quilter who gets an idea and works solely on it for hours a day until its completion. Nope, not at all. It can take months to go from concept to fabric….months to go from fabric to choosing a pattern. The piecing can either go fast or slow depending on my mood and distractions. I might finish the piecing in a week…..or it could take a year. And then there’s the quilting…and binding. See…hard question to answer…too many unknowns.
Let me take you through the process of a top I finished in October. Here it is with my trusted feline helper:
This is my 25th Anniversary quilt......I’ve been married 28 years now. :) Hubby and I went to Scotland/England for our 25th and I knew I wanted to make a quilt to commemorate the trip. I spent the three weeks on vacation getting all kinds of ideas from places we visited.
Wouldn’t some Celtic knot work look great reproduced from these wonderful crosses?
Or how about some interpretation of the architecture of this abbey?
Maybe something geometric inspired by standing stones?
So much inspiration but nothing really grabbed me. That is until the end of the trip when we were driving through the highlands and I was gazing out the window at the mountains (desperately trying to stay distracted from the curvy one lane road we were on) and it hit me – color! I would make a quilt that held all the beautiful color I was seeing on this trip. Woo hoo. Concept – done!.
Here's some of the beauty that inspired me:
Once I got home I knew I would need to order a stash of batiks (hand dyed fabrics that are rich in color) right away. Fabric – done! I was on a roll…not even a month had gone by.
Next was the search for a pattern. I had one in mind already and started working on it right away. Since it required a new skill I made several practice blocks. This is where my roll came to a screeching halt. These blocks were hard for me…and super time consuming. Knowing how freakishly slow I am I decided I needed to find a different pattern if I was ever going to see this quilt done in my lifetime. Unfortunately nothing else seemed right. Nothing. This part of the process took over a year. I finally just settled on a pattern I liked, one that would showcase the color…which was what this quilt was suppose to be about anyway. Pattern – done!
Piecing blocks went fairly fast…fast in Cindy time. :) I was done with the blocks within a couple of months. Next was to complete the top but I needed fabric for the setting triangles and didn’t have enough of any one color in my stash of batiks…besides I didn’t want to repeat a color…I wanted something different. Uh oh….another search begins….and another year goes by. Finally, as of October, the top is done. Piecing – done!
This brings us to present day. We’ve gone from September 2005 to October 2008. But am I done? Nope. Still have to quilt this baby. And I decided at the beginning that this special quilt will be hand quilted – HAND quilted. So give me another 3 years or so and I should be done.
How long does it take for me to make a quilt? Who knows. :)
6 comments:
Then again, sometimes it takes a couple of weeks.
But not for a masterpiece like this one.
Ha....Katney can pump them out in a couple weeks but ole Tink has never had that glorious pleasure. :)
Thanks for the joy of watching your creation again...I love that we both quilt! BTW today I actually cut fabric!!!!!
You're right, Kathy, some do take less time. I've made Warm Wishes tops in just a couple of weeks...and baby quilts too. But since I'm a little "a.d.d" and never stay with one very long, it generally takes me longer.
I wish I machine quilted as successfully as you do...I think I'd get more actual quilts done! :)
regardless of how long your quilts take, they are always extremely beautiful and full of thought and love.
I have a 25th anniversary quilt in mind too. I'm glad to find out that I'm not the only one that will take a long time to make one. I found a pattern last year, a snail's tail block with appliqued cat faces (very appropriate for our family of 19 cats) and I've been collecting fabric that looks like fur ever since. As soon as a couple Christmas presents are done, I'm going to start cutting it out and piecing. Thanks for the inspiration to keep at it!
If I'm doing a mystery weekend I can make a top usually by the following week. I did one in 3 months because I wanted to enter it in this year's quilt festival here in Walla Walla. Quilting the quilt does take a little longer. This one I just did the stitch-in-the-ditch on my DSM. As for my migrating round robin- still waiting for me to add one last border and quiltit. I find I make a lot more tops than actual quilts.
Hence my 30+ UFO's.
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