Red, White, and Blue - 4 Years in the Making.

As many quilters can tell you, sometimes, quilts take a long time to come to completion. This red, white, and blue quilt is no different. 



This one began in late 2012, after a heart breaking death, which I won't go into on here. I poured over so many star patterns on-line, trying to pick the ones I liked, ones that would be "good enough" for the red, white, and blue quilt I wanted to make.

I ended up saving over 60 images of quilt star patterns and began trying to arrange them into a pattern via photoshop and many, many sketches. Nothing I liked worked, which made my determination grow.  Eventually I came to like a few certain stars, and drafted them myself on graph paper.  I enjoy drafting out patterns and blocks this way, as I'm a visual person.  I also did this, so that the measurements were to my liking.














Next came finding the fabric which also took a long time. I adore glitter, but did not want any glittered fabrics for this quilt. I searched and searched for solids in a rustic, somber palette. I luckily found all these fabrics at connectingthreads.com, they have a beautiful selection of high quality quilting fabric. I believe they still have some of these prints / fabrics available.




Then came the many, many days of sewing the top of the quilt. This part took me a long time, some days it would make me cry, other days it made me happy; I would work on it until I couldn't handle it emotionally any more, then put it away. This quilt helped me move through more things than I thought possible. I had heard of other quilters in my old quilting group talk about how working on a particular quilt can be therapeutic, but I have never experienced it until working on this one.











Time jump.. for over a year, I had it sandwiched and had five to seven blocks finished, and that's how it sat for a very long time. I would pull it out and work on it periodically, mainly when I'd feel guilty for not working on it. I'd easily put it off to work on other sewing and creative projects as well as work and social occasions.







A few months ago, I said enough was enough. I had a habit of leaving this quilt in progress in my I Heart Project Linus bag beside my side of the couch, and I had grown tired of seeing it sit there, silently judging me for my abandonment. With new found vigor, I finished it within a month or so of off and on work. I "cheated" and bought the binding from a local sewing shop, as I just wanted it done.

With loads of support from various people, 4 years of intermittent work, lots of emotions and mental healing - it is now finished, sitting on our small sofa, and it brings a small smile to my face whenever I see it. 




















 As odd as this is to say, I think we're finally friends. 




Happy creating, and happy quilting!







For business inquires, contact me at: KristinVictoriaArt@gmail.com

To view original paintings, visit: etsy.com/shop/KristinVictoriaArt

To view prints on various items, visit: society6.com/KristinVictoria

To view more photos from the studio and my life on flickr, visit: tinyurl.com/kvartflickr

Follow me on Twitter, at: @KristinV_Art

Find me on Instagram at: instagram.com/kvjaenicke17

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Making: Magazine Junk Journal

Image
Book Making: Making a Junk Journal It may be no surprise that I love art journals and junk journals. So I decided to make my own junk journal from scratch, well, from scrap magazine pages. For the main body of the journal, I'm using magazine pages that are glued two together. I then folded the new pages in half and put them into signatures of 4 each. I punched holes into the signatures about an inch apart.  After waxing the embroidery floss, I stitched the signatures together.  For the cover, I was going to use the cover an architecture magazine as it's thicker, but I ended up using two sheets of cut down 12 by 12 inch paper.  I liked the idea of using white paper so that I can properly have my way with the covers.  I can't wait to add gesso and paint and anything else my heart desires to these new pages. Happy creating, and happy paper crafting! For business inquires, contact me at: Kri
Read more

Christmas Mini Quilts - Getting the Most From 5 Fat Quarters

Image
Christmas Mini Quilts Getting the Most From 5 Fat Quarters I've had a stack of five Christmas fat quarters for longer than I'd like to admit. Too many ideas filtered through my head until I finally decided on trying to get the most out of the fabric.  Since the pattern isn't specific to the holidays, this can be applied to any set of fabric. I cut all five fat quarters into four inch strips, and then into 4 inch squares, keeping all scraps to the side.  From this I separated them out first into the larger table runner using 36 squares, and arranging them into a rectangle of 4 by 9.  I decided to go with an angled pattern for the layout, but you could also place them randomly.  The finished size is 13 inches by 29 inches. This one fits well on the coffee table and the dining room table. I then layed out four rectangular place mats using 12 squares each.  I used a similar pattern layout as the table runner.  In fact, I keep this part the s
Read more

2016: A Quilting and Sewing Year in Review

Image
Amidst a wedding, two moves, a promotion, a graduation, the adoption and lost of a kitten, and family visits, I have been lucky enough to have finished some smaller and larger quilting projects.  This is the most active I have been with sewing since early 2014 when I had some time on my hands after graduating college. Some of these pieces are Christmas gifts, and some of them just gifts. Some are finished tops, and some are completely finished, quilted pieces. Regardless, I am chocked at how much I have accomplished this year with my trusty sewing machine. Red, White, and Blue Star Quilt To find out more about this beauty check out these two previous posts: Red, White, and Blue - 4 Years in the Making. Red, White, and Blue - A Closer Look. Simplified U. S. Flag Pillow I have a lot of red, white, and blue fabrics in my stash. I also had a faux fur cover rectangle pillow that didn't match our décor. Adding the two together, and a short about of math and sew
Read more