So the little tastes I've had of quilting have made me want to try more. I've made a few blocks for cooperative projects, and I liked the puzzle aspect and the need to balance perfection of measurement, cutting, and sewing against the practical process of executing an idea in soft, squishy materials. I probably also liked the finite scope of the cooperative thing, where someone else with far more skill than I have assembles the pieces and does the quilting and generally takes responsibility for making my input a useful part of the finished product.
Time now to step outside that comfort zone, though. While wandering a quilt store in Pasadena, Calif., with Ivy, I came upon this pattern by BBD Creations. I'd admired it at another place in Longmon, Colo. (also with Ivy, not coincidentally) but I didn't buy it then. The Pasadena sighting was too much to resist. and I grabbed it. The pattern is intended to make an arty wall-hanging, but I want more than that.
I have a quilt for the bed that I bought from the museum store at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, Colo. I spent what felt like too much money for the thing, but I wanted something handmade rather than some bit of sweatshop output from Target or someplace. And I do like it -- it's a very geometric pattern in blue and orange (the colors of the local football team, for which I confess something of an unhealthy obsession). It's warm enough for me, since I'm not much of a fan of the heavy pile of bedding that some people prefer. But the current quilt is not quite big enough. It covers the top of the queen-sized mattress and laps slightly over the edge. This leaves a messy effect with a lot of blanket showing underneath. I'm enough of an aesthete to want to do something about that.
So I figure I can use the arty dragonfly panel as the center of a larger quilt by surrounding it with squares of some compatible design. Hey, how hard can it be? After a short look at a book of Asian quilt patterns, I've settled on a very simple field block 10" square (since the finished panel measures 30" by 50") with a light blue quater circle on a field of darker blue. It looks good to my inner eye, but I guess we'll see how well that translates into reality.
Next: Fusing the forms