What else, right?
I happened to be in a position to go into "The Icehouse Quilt Shop" this summer, and after having heard so much about it from a few sources, I was expecting a phenomenal experience. A superb quilters mecca retreat. A feast for the eyes...blah blah blah.
It wasn't what I expected fabric-wise - to say the least - there was a very limited selection. After being spoiled by living near (and shopping at) so many noteworthy quilt shops over the years, with tremendous amounts of material to choose from, I was non-plussed by what I encountered.
Although the building (with it's neat history and lovely antiques scattered here and there) was fun to visit, the real reason I ventured inside was met with disappointment...sad to say.
I did manage to find a few funky materials that sparked a creative note, and I happily bought small amounts of each, making the clerk cutting the third- and half-yard pieces wonder (and ask) 'why so little?' Well, at nigh on $9 per yard, I would have to use the lovely bits sparingly.
Usually, I steer away from oranges and really garish prints, but something about these spoke to me. Just over this last year I have actually been keeping my eyes open for opportunities to add orange to my stash, sparingly and in a very choosey manner. One of the new fabrics was almost retro in appearance, and the other was just too homey and childlike in it's pattern and color palette to ignore. They dared me to touch them and dream.
And so I did. Here are some pictures of the resulting mixing and matching, and the beginnings of the new endeavor.
Snail Trail
It takes about an hour to assemble (2) perfectly stitched squares, resulting in half of one finished block. There are (20) pieces per square, and I scaled the pattern to result in 6.5" sq. raw blocks, so when they are sewn together, the finished blocks equal a foot each (not including the seam allowance). Bound, the quilt will be 3'x4' - unless I add a border or two (and when have I ever not added a border?).
Yes, the blocks are rather small, but I think the time and effort to make this load of triangles come together perfectly is worth it.
I have been working to move a little quicker with the construction, so that the time utilized for each block is less than an hour, and the fastest I can assemble two squares is about 45 to 50 minutes. I must be careful, though, not to stretch or skew the biases during sewing and pressing, or it means a lot more time wasted in removing stitches to reassemble it.
I do love perfectly square blocks.
More later.
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