A prickly quilt tale, part 2

When Georgia returned home from the classes she took, she was determined to finish the stubborn quilt, as she had been calling it. First she needed to figure out how big she would make the quilt. She had some leftover quilt batt, what size was it? Now that she knew what size, she was ready to design the rest of the quilt.

Georgia drew lines on graph paper to show the size the quilt would be. Next she inserted the part that she had sewn during her class. Two borders and an emphasizing line to continue the brown horizontal line came next. Finally, the plants, dragonfly, and raindrops were added. She showed her design to Randy – looked good to him.

It may seem strange to use counted cross stitch software to plan quilts, but Georgia has been doing just that since we lived in Florida, so, a long time. As she transferred the design from paper to the computer, she also dealt with some of the sewing decisions she had made during the class on Monday. How would she deal with possibly fraying seams on the back side? Hmmm.

Georgia decided to take advice once again from our stained glass teacher in Salt Lake. “If you make a mistake, change it into a design element. So the back of the quilt would have a bit of interest as well, a trellis and borders. She did take the easy way out during planning – the electronic version echoed the front rather than mirroring it.

Planning the front and back piece sizes, plus assembling them was fairly straightforward. However, there were some other creative decisions that needed to be made. The living plant stems that Georgia brought home didn’t quite look right, something else needed to be found. Not only that, but the watering can needed to be spiced up a bit.

Since a tan colored towel provided for the dead plan stems, a new, green towel was purchased for the living plan stems. The watering can needed some dimensionality. Grosgrain ribbon braided over some cording provided a new handle. But the can needed more. Washable netting, extra quilt batt, and a bit of embroidery took care of the watering can.

The leaves and flower petals which were cut in class didn’t quite work for the new version of the quilt. Existing units were trimmed, and more petals and leaves were cut. The design called for rain drops. Small bits of fabric left over from the Tuesday and Wednesday classes proved blue rain drops.

Georgia wanted a dragonfly on her quilt. However, the fabric she chose for the wings could not be washed. That was a problem since she designs her quilts so that they can be used. Using an image of a real dragonfly, Georgia created two dragonflies, one that could stay on the quilt during washing, and one, using the special fabric, would be removed from the quilt before the wash. The “special” dragonfly would stay on nicely with clear snaps and velcro.

After sewing and binding the quilt Georgia attached the watering can on by hand. Rain drops, flowers, and dragonfly were all placed based on the design. The dead flower stems were placed according to the design. But they didn’t look “right”. After experimentation Georgia decided they looked better when oriented in the same direction as the living stems.

Pinning and sewing all of the pieces took a bit of time and finagling, but were finally done. However, the coneflower needed a center. After a bit of research, Georgia decorated a brown circle of fabric, added a bit of batting, and sewed it down. Much better!

The title of the quilt is “A rain delayed gardener breaks the rules”. Georgia plans on keeping her “stubborn” quilt, just like she kept her “stubborn” piece of stained glass.