The Birches - Day One

I just finished a big project - turned out really nicely, better than I’d hoped, in fact.  But I just can’t do show-and-tell yet, so instead I decided to do something I haven’t done before.

One of the things I don’t think I see enough of on the interwebs is projects in pre-completion states.  Or mistakes, it seems mostly people don’t make mistakes.  Usually it’s - TADA, I shall present my beautiful finished object!  That’s pretty much what you get, except for tutorials.  Even then, there’s often a lack of info about what inspired it, how’d they choose the fabric or whatsit, what technique is used, etc.  Where’s the wherefore?  I enjoy the Craft magazine partially because of the nitty gritty they get into.

The Birches Project (a wall quilt)

So here’s me doing that.  Last Friday I decided I need something for this blank piece of wall I see (over there to the right –> it IS boring, is it not?)when I turn my head left.  My office has a startlingly depressing quantity of putty and gray in it, so I knew it would need color to relieve the drab.  Also, I wanted something “of mine” - something I made, which reminded me of the things I do at home, bring some of that with me here.

The next day, Saturday, I rummaged through my fabrics in search of inspiration.  This is always entertaining because the vast majority of my fabric is odd bolt-ends I found on sale or fabrics someone has given to me.  The latter frequently reflect the stylistic charms of the seventies and early eighties.  Still, I am not a person to throw away or turn my nose up for those reasons, no indeed.  Eventually I happened upon two things.  One was a blue shot with gold and blue threads - two pieces of fabric about the right size for the wall hanging I wanted to do.  It was once a couple of pieces from a sample upholstery fabric set.

The other was a bundle of fabric that Jeff’s grandmother purchased - precut fabrics to make into two quilts.  Looking at the combinations, I knew that to actually make these would be an entertaining, but not entirely enjoyable, jaunt into 1978.  Mustard and brownish.  However, the cut of some of the pieces was wavy, interestingly enough, and I started thinking of hills.  Another patterned piece made me think of the bark of a birch tree.  And then I saw the blue as sky and water.  And I drew it, and it looked good.

And I thought - yes! Once separated from their age-of-disco partnerships, the fabrics changed character. And I thought it would be pretty cool to use these right now, on that Saturday, because Jeff’s grandmother who I inherited these from passed away a year ago Saturday, and it would be a tribute I could pay her in my own way, a quilt of peace and beauty.

Tomorrow I will share some of my beginning process of this quilt.  On Saturday and Sunday I collected the thread and embroidery floss I would need.  I began cutting, and ironing and experimenting, and slowly, it began to look like what I was pictureing in my mind.  My collage shares some of that original gathering stage.  You can see some of the fabrics and colors that don’t look like they belong together yet.

And Callie, who spent all afternoon yesterday sleeping on the backing fabric, which was on my cutting mat, which was square in the middle of my desk, thereby depriving me of all three things.