Friday, September 19, 2008

Woohoo ~ Another Finish!

I am so glad I got the Fungly quilt layered and basted over the weekend. Tying and binding it has been the perfect thing for me to do the last couple of days.



I don't remember whether I told you or not, but I found a perle cotton in my stash from probably 25 years ago (eek!) that seemed perfect for this project. It's sort of a light dusty blue. Not ugly, but not my taste any more and it needed to be used up. The only problem was that it was size 3, the fattest perle I think you can get. And because I was feeling so cranky and was determined to have four tails on each knot I used it doubled in my needle. Broke the first needle I used. I've never done that before! By the time I had ties in the centers of all my stars I had a blister on my right index finger as well. After that I switched to just 6 ply cotton floss in a dark blue to tie the corners and mid-points of the blocks. The mid-points are tied on the back to keep the top less busy.

The binding was made from strips a friend had given me years ago that never seemed to work in any other project I auditioned them with. Sort of a tie-dye in two different colorways. The magical thing was that both colorways worked with the quilt! Probably because all the fabrics are from the same decade ;- )

It was interesting to see DD's reaction to the finished quilt today. She was really attracted to it. The funny thing is, when she went through the stack of blocks before I set them together she wasn't all that impressed. She's generally pretty enthusiastic about my projects but those blocks didn't do anything for her... until they became a tied quilt! (She's especially fond of tied quilts.) Makes me chuckle just to think about it.

DH, on the other hand, is still less than impressed. He appreciates the time and effort that went into the quilt, he can even understand the funkiness of the finished product, but it just isn't his style. He much prefers elegance and symmetry. A Mariner's Compass in Jinny Beyer prints would be perfect for him. Poor guy, he'll never get that from me!

On a technical note, my apologies to those of you who were hoping for a closer look at the beading on my journal quilt. I don't yet understand why the pictures I edit with software in my computer won't enlarge on Blogger. I have patience to sew a gazillion beads on a quilt but I don't have the patience to learn how to use more of the tools available on the internet! I'd like to upload a picture in my header too, but haven't made the time or found the patience to make that work either. I need to find a local blogger who can sit down with me and walk me through it all.

And thanks for hangin' with me through the ups and downs of my days.
:- )


10 comments:

  1. your fungly quilt turned out wonderfully -- broken needle and calloused fingers included :-)

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  2. Beautiful, beautiful quilt--the combinations of colors and patterns make the whole thing hum. You can be very proud of this one.

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  3. It's beautiful! I was thinking about tying my fungly too, but I wasn't sure how many ties and where they should go. As far as enlarging photos, I don't know how blogger works, but on Typepad there's a box to click to allow photos to be enlarged. Mine is set that way as a default.

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  4. wonderful job. yes, sometimes you can't judge a quilt by individual blocks, it's how they all go together! My husband is into the symmetrical beautiful quilts too - I tell him if he wants that he'll have to make it himself.

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  5. Ouch! Tying with Perle 5 is bad enough! Beautiful quilt.

    DH loves the French appliqué and quilting (all done by hand). Although some of the work is beautiful to look at, it is too fussy for me. Give me wonky and liberated any day!

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  6. I totally love the fungly quilt! It works so well because there are so many colors and textures all together. Once again, it proves that there really are no ugly fabrics.

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  7. JoWynn led me here, and I'm so glad she did. Your work is absolutely beautiful!

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  8. great fungly quilt - this is such a great concept. im tempted to make my next one fungly (although most of my quilts are borderline fungly anyway)

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  9. I think the reason this quilt works is that it's so like an old fashioned patchwork quilt that's comfy and handed down rather than like so many artsy quilts or planned quilts. It really did turn out nice.

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  10. Really nice fungly. You did a great job.

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