My list of gifting for celebrations is:
- High school pillow blanket of fleece and wind stop.
- First post high school gift is a blanket made of sweat shirt fabric lined in a fleece. The colors are those of the college(s) using actual deconstructed sweatshirts, if available.
- First wedding is traditional patched top with batting between. Most are tied.
- First baby is going to whimsical. After all... I am a textile artist.
This posting is documenting what I am working on, along with back stories. I love telling back stories.
The full sized blanket below was patched in 2018. I ran out of steam last summer and it sat while I tried to learn to walk without reaching for a wall.
In the interim I found a stash of calicoes suitable for the backings at St. Vinnies. Basis the quality and quantity... a quilt store must have closed and stock was donated.
There was enough extra material left to make 3 queen sized pillow cases.
I finished it last week.. The hardest part was getting up from the floor after a session of tying.
The work in progress below is at the retirement house. I rediscovered it in the basement while going through things deciding which to move up north and which to donate.
The original patches came from an auction over a quarter century ago. Other people's projects are rarely precise, nor sufficient to finish a project. The patches needed the structure of being surrounded by plain pieces, along with the addition of more fabric to make a sizable quilt. The pieced patches are of 1930's - 1940's shirt weight fabric. The melon colored square fabric is 1980's linen type fabric. the backing is large pieces that came in the same box, patched together in a hodge podge.
My work on this quilt has gone from hand quilting to machine quilting. Now I am back to hand quilting at the end of the day when I cannot quiet my mind.
Below is the collection for the next college graduation blanket. There are also some well loved navy sweats I picked up resale Saturday, in the dryer.
The Auburn sweats were found at the Goodwill in Waukesha, Wisconsin. That never would have been my first guess. (Although... years ago I found Marquette University sweats in Iron Mountain, Michigan.) The backing fleece was found on line. The balance of the scraps are from my other projects and a few work shirts donated by my handsome distance runner. I do like the colors laid out.
This will have to be a very large blanket as my nephew is well over 6' tall. I think I will cut the patches to 4" width strips to sew up to 3" widths when complete.
This last weekend I went on line for inspiration. What other designs are out there using sweatshirts for blankets? Disappointed... is an under statement. Am I the only person who posts my work that is constructed beyond a simple album blanket? There are tons of talented textile artists posting. Why are there such primitive skills using deconstructed sweats?
There were machine quilted sweatshirt blankets. Why? The purpose of quilting was to extend the life of the precious material. My much used alum blanket is 25+ years old, and finally showing some wear. It takes a lot to wear out cotton - poly sweat shirts.
Hmmm...
Update October 15, 2019:
The pile of sweats was deconstructed and sewn into strips 4" wide. The blue and white was strip pieced to squared. Then excel was put into action for an in-progress visual to work out dimensions, placement and color. I decided to try a one block drop with each row for interest. I liked the way it looked and that was the method I used.
This is the first time I've posted the design portion because I did not know how to change the excel format to the JPG, GIF or PNG that Blogger requires. For those of you who do not know how, either I have written out the steps below. Courtesy of my on site IT son. 1- Print screen. 2- [windows key] + R. 3- MS paint. 4- Paste. 5- Crop (this is a symbol that looks like overlapping 'Ls'). 6- Save As. Just that simple.
I did two variations. One with the orange border. One with the blue border. I did not know how much material was needed and did not want to do any more measuring. My girlfriend, Clara saw the printouts and liked the blue border better.
The top is now complete. It will be put aside because I have trick or treat costumes to make for my grandchildren to wear in 12 days. The blanket will wait until the end of this semester to mail.
In case the blue looks like it is black, that is the contrast by the bright late autumn sunlight.
Updated November 8, 2019.
The Auburn graduation blanket was completed early this morning. I am pleased. Then the epiphany occurred that there is one more graduation blanket to gift before the end of this year for my niece.
The pile of materials below will result in the next graduation blanket. I was not able to procure fleece for the back in school colors, as I was for Auburn. In Wisconsin, UW and Marquette are the colors to chose from. So, the Fleur di le black and white print is the choice I made for the back of blanket freece.
Not quite sure if I will use the scraps from the giraffe baby blanket as UWM team animal is a panther. Decision made. No giraffes. This should be another fun design because she began at UW LaCross and is graduating from UW Milwaukee. Black, Gold and Cranberry. Nice Autumn / Holiday colors.
Update December 14, 2019:
How can a messy pile such as the one above become a work of art?
By the grace of God.
The look is beautiful.
Above is the blanket top and back not yet sewn together. The black border is pieced with scraps to have enough material for a 10" band. Crisp. Precise. Fitting for a nurse.
My son donated the UWM sweat. The gold patch came from a t-shirt that was given to incoming freshman and found at St. Vinnie's. The La Cross deconstructed sweat has no knowable history beyond slightly worn and donated for resale. The back geometric was found on line. The black fleece used throughout was from prior projects.
Love the way the back with the black border turned out.
My daughter wrapped the blanket, after testing it. It came was a struggle for her to let go. Warm and soft. Perfect for the salad days of a 20 something.
Now there is a breather for 2 years until the niece at U.A. graduates. What wonderful designs will I be lead to, using the red and white of the crimson tide?
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