Revisiting a past quilt today. Longtime readers will remember I made a log cabin lap quilt for my Dad's 70 th birthday, started (of course) on the Tuesday before the Friday party! That was 4 years ago, all the guests wrote or drew messages on the calico on the back. I thought I was done with that project, but then a good while ago it was given back with the suggestion it needed to be bigger, preferably queen sized for their bed. I thought about a whole new one but some of the signees on the back have already died and I think those messages were a main part of the quilt. ....I scrounged up enough matching fabric for what is the third section on the below picture-If you look hard you can see a slight colour difference,
that makes it q/s width, then hit a dead end with no more fabric and no clear idea how to add in a whole new concept. It got thrown in the UFO drawer and if not forgotten, then only guiltily remembered! They recently got a king size bed so i gave up and made what i had into a big lap quilt in time for his 74th birthday celebration last Wednesday. He was more excited to get it back than he was to receive it!
Looks cosy doesn't he!
I am continuing my house spring cleaning and organizing mood. I worked on the kitchen bookshelves yesterday and pulled out all these quilt magazines. i like all these magazines but I'm finding that some of them are here because of the added subscription deals and are hardly being opened anymore, there is so much fabulous inspiration on the net. Also, I want more techniques from my magazines...techniques and interesting articles/stories. Not just 8 often bland patterns. Some of these do that better than others. What do you think about the magazine situation, still getting them, which inspires you? Fill me in.
The other problem is storage, i am putting these over with my LARGE collection in my sewing room. If there is really only one thing that I like in the mag I often cut it out and keep it in a plastic display book, last week I got quite ruthless and sent at least a few to the local high school to inspire them.....what do you do with them??Love to hear your thoughts, and don't forget to visit the quilting gallery this weekend to vote on the valentine Quilt comp. my cards are sponsoring, or visit my card site by Sun night and leave a comment to enter to win a pack of 15 of the cards.
Have a great day
ps, been watching the winter games opening ceremony, loved all the colour projections, especially those whales!
13 comments:
Hey Tracey... I'm a bit like you... I have more magazines than I will ever need. I only subscribe to one now, and that's only because the last deal was so good. After that finishes I will only buy a mag if I look at it first and see something in it I really want to make. I also cut out things I want to make from the magazines. I keep them in a plastic page protector in a 3 ring binder. I find my tastes change and sometimes even they get thrown out after a while!! Hope you are having a great weekend. BTW love the photo of your dad and his 'new' lap quilt... gorgeous!
I'm coming back to read what other comments you get to your magazine problem. I just shifted my sewing from one room to another, I have a huge collection of mags and I refuse to let the all into the new room so they are in a big pile in the hall until I decide what to do with them. Its a daunting task but I want to go through them and keep the nice projects then donate the rest to a quilt group or friends. Like you, I find more than enough inspiration on the net, I no longer buy mags so a lot of them are getting old and out of date. I need to do five a night to start whittling them down maybe,
Love what you decided to do with the quilt.
I buy some of the UK mags and then photocopy what I fancy. Then every 3 months or so I send the mags across to a blog friend in the US. As 'payment' she send me some quilting thread that I can't get over here.
love and hugs Gina xxx
I have two boxes of quilt magazines to donate to our thrift shop. The funny thing is, that's where I got most of them in the first place. Call it rent I guess.
I, too, find the magaizines taking over my sewing room. I find most of my inspiration is now found on the web, but there is nothing like sitting down and looking through some of the older magazines. I know that I should purge through mine and just keep what inspires me, but what if something else inspires me next year??????
Your dad looks really comfortable with his big lap quilt. The king size bed purchase certainly made the decision easy for you. ;)
I have stopped all my subscriptions, for basically the same reasons you mentioned. For years, when I find something I love, I cut it out and pictures and directions-it goes into a plastic page protector in a huge binder I keep. I recycle the magazine guts.
I'm reading over 300 blogs now, using my reader. There's a world full of inspirations at my fingertips!
My sentiments echo yours. The only mag I get now is the NZ quilter quarterly.
It annoyed me that patterns for quilts were appearing in several magazines - so not original. Magazines are HEAVY to store! I too use blogs and the net as inspiration!
We put used mags on sales table at P and Q meetings ( for a small donation ) so they go round and round! I find books better value.
Seems to be a common theme Tracey. I don't buy the Aussie mags anymore, especially when I see "8 quilts to make" on the front rather than "8 NEW quilts to make" as I've been reading them long enough to see the rotation of projects.
I buy one US mag which I love, I sometimes borrow from the library. I look through my old US mags a lot, but could really cull the Aussie ones after tearing a few projects out.
Your Dad looks happy to have his quilt back!
Great quilt you made for your dad! No wonder he loves it! Very striking! Good luck with your cleaning up!
The quilt looks great, love the colours....
Hugs
Jodie :)
Hi Tracey...
What a tricky request afterwards to enlarge the LC quilt... I think you did well to do what you and how neat that he was so excited to receive it again.
I'm with you on the mags... don;t buy many at all, rarely the occasional one.
You left me a comment on my blog... I was unable to reply by email...
*Lovely to hear from you.
Hope you're getting rain and just the right amount where you are.
Quilt sewing day was fun and we had one new lady... always a great day.
..and I'm glad you like my strings... they've been fun and challenging!*
hugs
Robyn xx
PS I found going thru my old mags ages ago, that a binder (loose sleeve) suited me... I tore out the pages I wanted and put them in the binder...got rid of the rest.
Hi Tracey, Firstly the log cabin quilt looks fantastic and you have done a fabulous job of increasing the size of it! That has got to mean alot for your dad to be more excited getting his quilt back than he was to recieve it - means he must have missed it an awful lot!
In regards to magazines last year I picked out 3 favourites and made a first time subscription last year. This is saving me money off the cover price and I no longer go to the newsagent and add a few more mags to the purchase pile just because thye look nice.
With all the other mags I just cut/ripped out the pages that I liked at the time and gave the mags away (yes I did tell them there might be some pages missing).
When my subscriptions are up for renewal later in the year I could cut these down to 1 or 2; depends on the incentives offered!
Jenny of Elefantz did a great post Nov or Dec last year (I think) on how she organises and files pages from magazines. If you can't find it maybe an email to her...she is very friendly and helpful.
Hope this helps; and it was great to read the other comments about magazines.
I LOVE it! Wonderful job and great tutorial. Thanks so much for sharing about Oversize King Quilts
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