A lady has propositioned my husband. She comes into his work daily and has recently been complaining of not being able to find someone to make her a quilt with these fabrics. Her mother recently passed away and she has been looking for someone to make something to hang on her wall in memorial of their last vacation together in Bermuda.
These fabrics are out-of-this-world gorgeous. How could anyone cut into them?! She said that she gave them to a quilter who has held onto them for the last 4 years. She gave them to my husband who had told her earlier of his wife the quilter *me* = ).
I took them today from his work and she wants me to give her an idea of what I can do and give her an estimate. Well the time has come for someone to be brave and cut into these amazing tapestries. They are all printed on cotton. The ones with the off-white and tan backgrounds measure approximately 2 yards long by 47" wide. The one with the whitest background is the same X2 (the same print but there are two panels.) The smallest one has already been cut into. I am guessing she was trying to make it into a "shirt" but has only cut and pinned it. It still would need to be sewn. But the woman did not say she wanted any clothing made out of these prints. That's the first thing I thought of too!! These all would make beautiful dresses or skirts.
PLEASE HELP ME ALL YOU WONDERFUL QUILTY GENIUSES!!!
I've only had them for 1/2 a day or so, but I did come up with some rather simple ideas. Fussy-cut into them and just make some large blocks?? Maybe make a large rail fence sort of pattern? I dunno. If anyone has any brilliant ideas I would be more than grateful.
Check out quilter Paula Nadelstern's method of quiltmaking. She does lots of fussy cutting and her quilts are award winners. Good luck
ReplyDeleteif it's something she wants to have to hang on her wall to remind her of their last trip together - then I'm thinking that what she really desires is for a LONGARM QUILTER to go to town making them beautiful for her with QUILTING - NOT CUTTING!
ReplyDeletethe whole pattern will be lost in any cut up and sew back together pattern - especially a rail fence. I highly recommend bring this to her attention that if they are cut and sewn - they will never look anything like what they do now. What a shame to distort such beautiful designs that these Bermutia women made.
I higly recommned this blog site to go and look at and even contact to see what she might would quilt to enhance these beautiful designs!
www.greenfairyquilts.blogspot.com
I think she could make them look really fantastic! GOod luck! ~bonnie
Hi, I left a comment at Quiltmaker too. Look at Jinny Beyer's quilts. She started out quilting while living somewhere in Asia (India? Can't remember) and her first quilts had that exotic look and used the fabric designs to good effect. You can probably find some of her older books at the library.
ReplyDeleteAn alternative would be to make small whole-cloth quilts where you sandwich the uncut piece with batting and backing, and let the fancy quilting be the star. Good luck!
These pieces are just beautiful the way they are. I would NOT cut them up as you would lose the pattern. I would quilt, quilt, quilt
ReplyDeletethem as they are. Meril from Mo
I make family pieces from fabric from India similar to what she has. These sheets do not need to be cut. I ditto everything anyone else says about a long arm quilter getting a chance to finish these beauties. I tend to use solid sheets on the backs of mine and they wash and wear well. I vote don't CUT. cw
ReplyDeleteI agree! Do not cut into these beautiful fabrics.........take to a very good long-armer and let him or her do their very best! The only other possibility I could think of would be something like a tablecloth that wouldn't cut up the fabric too much.
ReplyDeleteHi, Yesterday I left you a longarmer's website and I'd like to share another - Leah Day. She is super awesome at filling in with different designs on quilts and recently she's been sharing how she would quilt up sampler quilts by drawing onto photos of quilts... and she is full of lots of creative ideas.
ReplyDeleteTake a look:
http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/
I just know she could do something awesome with these quilts and make them beautiful whole cloth designs. Looks like most everyone agrees that cutting these pretties up would destroy them.
What ever you do decide on - before you begin make certain that the owner of the fabrics FULLY understands yoru plans and is ok with it b/c otherwise they may be extreamly upset with the outcome.. I again think that she's asking for a quilter to make a quilt with them... but doesnt' know enough about quilting to know that really what she wants is a fancy quilting design on the whole cloth.
Good luck! Love from Texas! ~bonnie
I agree with everybody else -- please don't cut into these beautiful pieces -- they should be quilted "as is"! They should be whole cloth quilts!
ReplyDeleteI would fussy cut them up and mix and match them into blocks (paula nadelstern) and make one quilt out of them! would be awesome...good luck!
ReplyDeletehugz
Pam
I totally agree. No cutting.
ReplyDeleteThanks to all your comments. I myself do not know any longarm quilters. Most of the ladies from my church do simple tie-off quilts or quilt solely by hand. I can't do much with my simple machine, so I will be suggesting she take it to a professional longarmer.
ReplyDelete