The saga of the spider web quilt!

     At the end of 2019, I had finally finished the center of the spider web quilt I have been working on for my husband for the past eight or ten years.   I had fiddled around with border designs in EQ8, and posted here about it in 2019, but then managed to delete all of my quilt design files in EQ8.  Arrggghhhh!  Getting back to designing is still on my 'to-do' list.  Flying geese were part of the plan. 

     I still had plenty of scraps left over, so I borrowed a quilting friend's flying geese ruler and made lots of 6 inch flying geese.  The ruler was very very helpful!  I've made them before using a variety of techniques, but these all are sized the same, and look nice and neat.   I didn't make enough to go all the way around because I thought that might be too busy visually, plus I was getting to the point where my scraps were a bit too small. 

     I used a reddish fabric for a little border strip, and then positioned the flying geese strips around on my design wall.

     I was thinking that I was getting close to finishing the top, when I became stumped about the corner blocks.  I ended up making a few 6 inch square blocks to see what might work.  After hours of work, it turned out I didn't like any of them.  

     I ended up with two corners with flying geese, and placed them all going in one direction, and just used plain gray fabric for the other two corners.  Since I am handquilting, I thought I might do something with those plain corners with quilting.  I do like the end result now since the focus remains on the crazy spider web design of the center.
     I pieced the quilt back from some neutral striped fabric and some novelty fabric (typewriters for my writer husband!) (pictures below), and began the pinning process.   I used to hate this process, but now find that listening to audiobooks makes the task go quickly.  I am currently listening to the Masie Dobbs series of audiobooks from my local library. 

Clamped down tight on my craft table

Good to have an inspector checking my work! 

Inspection is exhausting work!  The backing fabrics, and napping cat!

     I am in the midst of handquilting, and will provide an update on that process in the near future.  In the meantime, this is keeping me warm when I am watching TV at night! 

     Thanks for stopping by my blog.  Feel free to ask me any questions, or let me know what you think of this quilt. 

Take care,

Gretchen 

Hello, again!

     I had grand plans for 2020!  However, even before January ended,  my life changed forever.  My mom, who was an enthusiastic supporter of all my endeavors, passed away fairly unexpectedly at the end of January.  I had spent time with her nearly every day since retiring in 2016, and suddenly she was gone.  Then, in the midst of working through that grief, Covid hit, and life as we all knew it was no longer the same.  Everyone's life has been upended in ways big and small.  

     I found art and creative pursuits good solace, and managed to finish up the work to complete my  associates degree in fine art.  I also returned to quilting, and made a lot of masks as well!  While I managed to post pictures on Instagram (@snugharborquilts), I couldn't find the energy to work on my blog until now.

     I have refreshed the look of my blog, and will again start documenting my quilting experiences as I go along.   If I get brave enough, maybe I'll share my other art as well!    I'd like to say I'll blog every week or so, but let's not get too crazy!  

     In the upcoming months, I'll blog about a few of my recent quilts - here are a few teaser photos! 

A civil war repro spider web for my husband.  Hand quilting!  Yikes! 

A batik "Delectable Mountain"  gifted to my sister-in-law

A "Lexi" for my soon to be daughter-in-law

A quilt for me - there is a whole story behind this one!  

 

In the meantime, thank you for visiting my blog, and be well.

Take care,

Gretchen