Oy vey. As I have often been told, if I had a brain it would rattle. No rattling around here that I can tell! I've done some really stupid things in my quilting life but this quilt managed to eclipse all of the old stupid into an entirely new category of stupid. My friend Deborah had a bunch of fabric swatch books that she was selling, I couldn't resist. All kinds of different fabrics in one color, in one book, all the same size, wouldn't they make for a fantastic quilt?!? Half the work was already done it seemed to me!
The swatch book I decided (like the ones pictured above) to use was filled with beautiful decorator fabrics in cream and off white - all neutral colors. Each rectangular piece of fabric had a paper label on the back, now how hard do you think it was to remove that label? H A R D !!! I tried peeling it off, had no luck. It was glued on with Kyrponite-Gorilla-Super-Glue and no amount of pulling and prying was going to remove it. So, in my rattle-less-head I decided the best thing to do would be to soak the fabric swatches in warm water so the papers would just float off. Nope, no floating happened. After a full day of soaking, the paper was still firmly attached but I could loosen the edges a bit. There were maybe 200 different swatches (I had three books) and I just didn't have the time to stand around picking off paper - I figured it would be much faster if I just threw all of the swatches into the washing machine. I should have taken pictures of what ensued...one large ball of fabric, frayed and tangled together with paper bits all over the machine and the fabrics. At this point I had nothing to lose, so I tossed the large ball into the dryer. Yep, I did. And after an hour, I opened the door to find even more tangling and fraying - some fabrics completely fell apart! There were paper bits stuck all over the inside of the dryer and now onto every single piece of fabric, front and back, there were little bits of paper. I was thoroughly annoyed.
I'll spare you the tale of the next thousand hours spent picking paper off of what remaining fabric there was. Half of the blocks were far too frayed/shredded to be used at all. The other half were now in various shapes and sizes. I spent hours cutting them all into one size - no way was I going to make anything more difficult - just rectangles for my frazzled brain.
So while it doesn't look like much - this quilt definitely took more time than any other I've ever made. The fabrics are all decorator prints, some out of silk, some heavy, some woven, some reminded me of chairs we used to have when I was a kid - but all of them came together quite nicely, yes?
Gratuitous dog shot...our little Rosie Ann Marie. Any chance Rosie gets she is on a quilt - she loves them. When I asked my kids if they wanted my quilts when I pass on to that great fabric store in the sky, my daughter said she'd take "a few" and my son said he'd take them all because he could sell them on ebay. Rosie gets them. All of them. Dang kids - they don't want my stuff unless it's to sell! Not one sentimental bone in either of their bodies...they are JUST like their dad!!! Speaking of, he saw this quilt and said, "That's a nice pattern." Really?!?!?!? Plain rectangles gets a nice comment from him! Do you see what I have to deal with?!?! I worked forever on my elephant quilt - it was a bit "intricate" and he said, "Hmmm, didn't know you liked elephants." That was his comment. But show him a beginner quilt and he says he likes the pattern. Maddening!
The backing isn't all that exciting - I just wanted to keep things neutral. I think this will make a nice wedding gift - it's got a solid "heft" to it because the fabrics are a bit heavier than just cotton, making it extra comfy to curl up with. This is lap size - 78" x 52" and it kills me to think about all of the very cool fabrics that could have been in this quilt had I not thrashed them! Oh well, live and learn...if only.
If you're wondering what I'm going to do with the two red swatch books, well I'll tell you! I'm going to CUT the paper off, which will give me 5 1/2-inch squares. I will sew them together and then show the mister so he can give me another "nice pattern" comment.
