New Project

Most of the time when I write about politics it means I am working on a quilt. Since I am a hand sewer and hand quilter, the work just doesn't make good photographs or anything early on. The quilt I am making now is another Sue Garman design but from a long time ago--The Washingtonian. The reason for the quilt may be familiar to some of you. I quilt because I like to quilt not because I need any bed covers or wall hangings or anything. The problem is what to do with the quilts when they are done. There is no good way to sell them, at least not at my level or style of quilting, as it just isn't economically worthwhile. The quilt that takes me 7500 hours to make couldn't even sell for $7500 which would only be $1 an hour and wouldn't count the materials either. So I either stock pile the quilts (that princess and the pea bed), or I give them away. The second option is less common simply because you can't just give away a quilt if you don't know where it is going or how it will be accepted. Or at least I have learned that lesson from unfortunate experiences.

A friend from Utah was coming east for his son's graduation from Princeton. I had given this man's wife a couple of quilts in the past and when one of her children visited her from England where she currently lives, the daughter was very impressed and envious. So I told the wife I would make her daughter a  queen sized quilt as long as I got to pick the colors and the style. There wasn't any time frame given or requested so when I finished my last small project, I started this new one. I have to make some changes to the design as the original is only double bed sized but this is from the period when large four block quilts were popular so making the rest of the quilt fit the scale of those blocks seems pretty easy to me. I am going to add some more sashing around the center area and I am going to add some applique motifs to the outer borders to expand their length. I am sticking more or less to the original colors as red, green, and white are pretty safe choices and I am using a variety of William Morris cottons for those plus some more off the wall type patterns. Since it is a big block quilt I have nearly finished the center four blocks and when I get them done I will post pictures.