Thanks to everyone who has seen the quilt and asked for the pattern. I am still planning to have it up on my website as a freebie, and now am only 3 months behind with that plan!
It may even end up here first!
The secret: it's all 3" blocks, no matter what you think you see.
The entry deadline for the big local show is coming up (QuiltFest, Sept. 25-7), and I needed a sleeve for POM. What could be better than a bright limey green with coffee beans?
Maybe now we know how the Old Men got perky...too much coffee!
I made the sleeve by cutting a 9" strip and sewed it RS out into a tube (the seam is hidden next to the quilt...why turn a long tube if the seam won't show?)
Then I basted a pleat (approx. 1/2") along the tube. That's the fold you see in the picture. Then I pressed the whole tube and hand-stitched it along the top, sides & bottom, took out the basting, and it's ready for whatever size hanging rod will go inside.
Then I basted a pleat (approx. 1/2") along the tube. That's the fold you see in the picture. Then I pressed the whole tube and hand-stitched it along the top, sides & bottom, took out the basting, and it's ready for whatever size hanging rod will go inside.
I think I still love the binding best on this quilt! Big red batik polka dots!
Of all the fabrics in "POM" (some going back to the beginning of my stash, 25+ years ago) there was one little square that "shattered" (brittle fabric that breaks apart). I had it marked with a safety pin so I could find it again and do something about it...but what?
While sewing on the sleeve, it came to me....this crazy quilt could use a little Yo-Yo!
So indeed I made one and sewing it on top of the square.
Can you find it?
Can you find it?
No fabric was purchased for the completion of this topYes, it's right in the very center of this photo.
Don't bother to guess how many different fabrics there are...we will never know. Not if I have to count them, anyway!
But when the pattern is done, then we'll know how many blocks are in it!
4 comments:
The pleat in the sleeve! I remembered making a sleeve be a D-shape, but I forgot just how to do it. I am getting ready to make a sleeve, myself. Thank you for this timely hint!
Elizabeth
So... I see many two-fabric nine-patches, but also some multi-fabric nine-patches. Did you work from a plan, or have a ratio of 2 vs. multi in mind when you were sewing the blocks?
I'm thinking of doing something similar, but with either square-within-a-square or diamond-in-a-square blocks (or a combination), but I'm worried that I'll either end up being a slave to the rule or deviate so much that the rule isn't discernable. I suppose that's exactly where the artistry lives, but I'd love to hear about your thought process as you were making this quilt.
Elizabeth
Elizabeth,
You have certainly given POM a good examination!
The 9-patches came from two sources. One was a year-long exchange with members of the BGPC. We each had a color assigned so we would know in the future who had made which blocks. Those are the ones that tend to be 2-color.
The others that are completely scrappy are the original Perky Old Men, named on a retreat when the "Perkiomen Valley" pattern name was mis-read from a book (that pattern is actually a split 9-patch!). The name was too good to pass up. My retreat project was a shoebox of 1.5" strips, and I was just mindlessly sewing little scrappy 9-patches for several days, so they became the Perky Old Men.
Because the original POMs tended to be darker, I placed them to end up in the white "stripes". That is about the full extent of any plan for that quilt!
When you see the whole thing, you will even spot a Maple Leaf, Churn Dash and some other patterns....part of the 9-patch exchange!
Sometimes you just have to go for it and not worry too much about where things end up.
Okay! Watch me go! :-)
It's good to feel inspired.
E.
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