Beauty Shots of the Spools Quilt

One of the things I wanted to do when I was in California was take some beauty shots of the Spools quilt I made for my son and DIL.  My son and I went for a walk one morning and found this spectacular tree. When he told me it was his favorite (and how could it NOT be?) I knew it was the place to photograph the quilt.

I took a lot of pictures, but I like this one best, because you can see a bit of the back. This spot was only two miles away from the beach, and it was a breezy day. I spent a lot of time rearranging the quilt because the wind was blowing.

 Here's another good one, but I think the top one is the one.

When I got back to the house, I thought I'd take a picture of the quilt spread out on the ground, but my son's dog, Helo, had other plans.

It was pretty funny. He just couldn't leave it alone, and had to roll around all over the whole thing.  And I thought only cats claimed ownership of quilts!

Gifted!

When I was working on the Sunburst Rainbow Quilt, my Mom saw the pictures.  "You have to give that quilt to me. Only I can appreciate that bright color."

When your Mom is 80 years old, an Artist and lover of the unconventional and the unusual, you say yes. So it was that my Mom unwrapped this quilt as a Christmas present yesterday. As you can see, she and her dog Missy are very happy.

Equally happy are my son and future DIL who received the Spools Quilt for Christmas.

Their cats love the quilt too.

Finished Spools

The Spools quilt is all finished. I'm happy with the way it has turned out.

We're supposed to have almost two inches of rain today, so there won't be any outside photos any time soon!

62 Inches Left!

 Thank goodness for NOVA on PBS. I can watch it on the little TV in the dining room. It makes it easier to sit and sew for a while if there's something to keep my mind interested.

Here's the view from my chair when I got started last night.

I've now stitched down 250 inches (635 cm) of the 312 on this quilt. Now I've got one corner to turn, and one short side to finish. I'll have it done this weekend.

When not sewing, I've been reading. I read the Dressmaker of Khair Khana, David and Goliath, and Spider Woman's Daughter.  I'm also working my way slowly through The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon. I say slowly because I love the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels and want to savor this one, so I limit myself to one chapter a day.

165 and counting

I have 165" left on the binding of the Spools quilt. I've got one long side done, two corners, and most of one short side done.

50 or so inches (127 cm) is about my maximum in any given day. The rest of the time I've been reading or just goofing off.

Spool Time

 I added the binding to the Spools quilt, Now I have to sew the binding down.

It's a big quilt, and it's going to take me a while.

Around and Around the Spools

I finished sewing up the Spools into a flimsy. It isn't perfect, but it doesn't need to be. It's going to be thrown across the back of a couch, and valued for the Sheer Love Units (SLU's) it will provide.

But it needs a little something something. Actually, I have a few ideas.  Let's review, shall we?

 The green is lovely. But it doesn't really bring anything different to the party.

The red, however, packs quite a wallop. Red is the opposite of green, so having it there makes the greens pop. Also, there are enough red touches in many of the "cream" fabrics to connect this color to the body of the quilt.  This inner border won't be larger than 3/4", so it's going to be just enough to give the quilt a little kick.

This brown batik will be the outer border. Gold was too bright, another cream was too light, and something darker than this brown would be too heavy.

OK, so this is looking quite nice.  Now for the binding.  Cream? Nope. Green? Nope. Red? No, it would be too much. What to use?

This batik is used in the spools on the body of the quilt itself. It has the golds, browns, greens and reds. It's perfect.

I also like that it isn't particularly prominent, but is interesting.

So that's it for the front. "What," I hear you asking, "might you use for the BACK?"

I thought you'd never ask!

Now you can see how the backing fabric informed my choices for the border on the front.

Spools, Redux

I've made all my spool blocks, and trimmed them all to size. (The Bali Pop strips were not exactly 2-1/2" wide, which was annoying.) I cleared the dining room to start laying out the blocks.

 I remembered Julie had said she laid hers out according to the magazine article where she found the design. I wasn't sure I'd do that, until I started moving the blocks around. There are eight different sized blocks.

I surrendered, and lay them out like the diagram in the magazine. I may make some minor adjustments, but for the most part, this is the way the flimsy will look. I will decide on borders later. I have THE COOLEST fabric for the backing of this quilt!
 

Spools

My pal Julie had made a really cool spools quilt a year or so ago and I thought it would be a good way to use up the mashed potato cream fabrics I had left over.