Now the quilt is under way.
The skirt was simple compared with this. Laying out 240x240 cm so that there is enough of every size of piece, the colours are distributed evenly and neighbouring colours do not quarrel... a day and a half of cutting was a piece of cake. It seemed like so much that another skirt could be made from the leftovers. When I started laying it out, there was suddenly so little that there could be more and more of every colour. Every small piece has to be put to use.
To the width in the picture another 2 x 15 cm of border should still be added. Half the length is still missing.
All the pockets, plackets and product labels will go in. At the moment it is still only the client's material; I have not added my own, but it seems I will have to add some.
Otherwise today is a lovely and important day: early this morning I became a grandmother once more, the sixth grandchild this time. A pink little quilt is the next thing to take on.
Before the turn of the year yet another little one is arriving in the family. The older children still have their quilts at home, but every child needs their own. For the bigger ones I was planning new, large ones anyway. The baby quilts became too small long ago. Such a year, then; you could say the work is planned to the end of it. Perhaps I will manage a few Christmas things as well, to catch some festive spirit.
On Saturday I sewed a large stack of extra squares from the rectangles left over from the skirt and from even smaller squares. Because I ran short and decided to lay blocks sewn from the skirt strips all the way round at the edges.
Today I rearranged almost the whole layout of the quilt. Those blocks that were cut from the button plackets and were at first meant to stay as large pockets I sewed shut, because we decided after all to add thin wadding to the quilt. At first the thought was to make the quilt entirely without wadding. I myself have slept in summer heat under a thin quilt for twenty odd years. Through the washing machine and out onto the line, dry by evening and back on the bed.
Coming back to the pockets made from the plackets: a second layer of fabric could be sewn under those too if you wanted to keep them as pockets. But for a quilt it is probably not worth the trouble. The shirt pockets are all in use whole as it is.
Once I finally had the pattern in a row after several rounds of laying out, I sewed it first into strips and then the strips together into a quilt. All the seams pressed down row by row. Starting to press the seams afterwards across the whole quilt is not so simple.
With the pattern together, I washed the linen backing, 2 lengths, that is 5 m in all. It shrank by about 15 to 20 cm in the wash. I sewed them together, pressed the seam. Spread it out and fixed it with masking tape.
I spread the wadding over the backing and sewed the join of the wadding together by hand (the wadding took 2 lengths side by side). On top of that the pattern, very evenly, all the seam allowances nicely as pressed (not folded or doubled), and all the layers pinned to one another with safety pins. It took 145 safety pins this time. Sometimes 250 safety pins go into a far smaller piece. Then the quilting and the binding.
Finished.
A good feeling in my heart at once and peace in my soul. The whole pattern is from the client's shirts. I made the most of the pockets, labels, plackets and the plackets of the short sleeves with their decorations. Here are a few close up views as well.
It is a memory quilt, a memory of the client's father.
I have my own father's dress shirts in a bag waiting their turn too. I do not know when I will get round to them...
