A Utility Quilt (unfinished)

Way back in early 2017, about the time I started this blog, I decided to start a simple quilt made of 3" squares, each representing a completed sewing project.  I started by collecting the squares as I sewed other things.  Some of the squares were a single fabric, but others were themselves pieced from the several fabrics used in a single project.  I collected for a while, but never made the quilt because I didn't know how to bring the pieces together attractively. 

A few months back, as I became motivated to quilt, I pulled those squares out and re-evaluated them.  I discarded all the synthetic fabrics, keeping the cotton, silk, rayon, and linen.  I also discarded too-heavy or too-sheer squares, paring my selection down to only things that would work well for piecing.  Then I threw them together in a few days, into a very strange quilt-top.  It was more an exercise in piecing and setting blocks on point than a real design.  I'm fond of it, but not excited enough to finish it, so it sits now in the WIP pile. 

SOME QUILT SQUARES AND DETAILS

Years back, I used this striped fabric with damask weave to make a pair of capri pants for myself.  Actually, the pants were too loose to be capris... maybe they were pedal pushers.  This was an early sewing project, before I got my Pfaff, so now I look at the slight distortion of stripes in the hem and think "If only I'd had the Integrated Dual Feed then!"

This is a piece of an old sheet that I made into a nightgown for my sweet niece!  Love the big butterflies with the fake kyo kanoko shibori pattern!

This quilting cotton with black and white bicycles on it was given to me when I first moved to my town.  I was also given a bike(!) by a new friend at the same time!  I used the cotton for some undies (no, no pictures) and the bike for getting around town.  I've embroidered this bike in orange to remember my real bike, which was covered in reflective stickers.

This is the lovely fabric from my tulip skirt!  Since my skirt was plain in order to let the fabric shine, I let the quilt square be the same.

Here are two of the fabrics from my favorite hat for my sister: the Russian Ice Hat!  However, I couldn't find any scraps of the silver brocade I used for the brim, so all I have here is the blue silk and the white lining.  I put little tucks in the blue to make the square more interesting.
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Here's a pieced square with the three fabrics from my mantelet project.  The top is the main green wool, the middle is the taupe satin lining, and the bottom is the plaid wool.  I put the plaid on the bias for interest's sake, and lined that piece with something on the straight of grain to keep my square square.

Here are the two fabrics from my sister's red tam: an old nightgown (green) and a curtain remnant (red).  The chain stitch (lazy daisy) recalls the way I finished the inside of the hat.

Ah, the Hour of Duh pants!  And the Hour of Duh quilt square is no more promising... I swear the fabric is a lovely dark green, but could I get a decent picture of it?  No!  I put a flat-felled seam in this square to make it more interesting and remind myself of the ill-conceived pants. 

These three denim pieces are from the three pairs of high-waisted jeans I made for my client.  I arranged them from lightest to darkest.

Here is the rose chintz quilting cotton that went from covering shelves in a store, to my stash, to my back!  I used it to make a wearable muslin bodice as part of my experimentation in developing a Victorian bodice pattern.

Here's the rosy fabric I used for my sister's peplum top.

This scrap commemorates three garments and a good lesson.  The first garment, a wrap dress, was a failure because I cut the bodice wrongly on the bias, leading it to stretch and ripple over time, until it was impossible to iron.  So I cut it down and salvaged the bottom for a new skirt, which was also not that great.  I learned my lesson about the bias, though, and applied it well to my sister's peplum top.  Finally, I bought more and made a shirt, which I love!

This African Wax Print fabric will have the distinction of being quilted twice-- once in the Cricket in the Congo quilt, and then in this pieced project!

THE BLOCKS

In addition to my old squares, I also have new cotton strips leftover from my "Organized Chaos" quilt, which I piece together on the fly.  I make several squares and trim them to the same size, then sew them into larger squares and strips. 

making squares

some warm colors

Then I play around with different corner options before settling on molten yellows. 

some corner options

finished quilt top

QUILT SANDWICH

The batting is a mill end strip of Pendleton greige wool.  It'll make the quilt quite heavy, but I will be happy to have it as a car quilt, a blanket in case of emergency or breakdown, which can be used to smother a fire if needed, but is still pretty until then.  Now it just needs to be quilted. 

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9/3/2023 Update
I never finished this one, possibly because it represented an intersection of growing skills with poorly chosen fabrics.  I grew to dislike it.  I eventually donated it to the Northwest Quilters guild, which has a group that finishes tops for charity.  Perhaps someone quilted it.  Funnily enough, since it left my hands, multiple people have exclaimed over it in my portfolio, saying they like it best!  It seems that it does have some merit, invisible to its creator.