I think it's fair to say that I tend to develop a healthy number of obsessions. Take chickens, for example. Darned if I want to live with roosters, but the hens are actually growing on me in terms of cuteness factor. And what with this great painting we picked up in China ages ago, a rooster calendar, and some of my mom's decorative bird plates, well, the family room has a certain theme to it [and yes, I may or may not have egged my mom on to create that theme].
What was missing from it? A quilt, of course.
Of course. This one sports a semi-random pattern I designed on graph paper. The goal was to give the look of randomness while making it easier [and faster] for me to cut and piece everything.
Back in Phase I of my crafting life, I decided one day that I was going to make a quilt based on the Chinese zodiac. Hence all the chicken fabric already in the stash. So now I can safely say that I have two animals out of the stash [I made my ex-boyfriend a dog-themed quilt], and only 10 more to go. Oh, the joys.
Mom and I did our usual collaboration. Probably my favorite parts of these quilts is not the actual piecing of the quilt top which is my responsibility, but coming home periodically and running my fingers over the prodigious output of my mom's handquilting. She is especially prolific in the fall and winter months. I mean, she's always improvising and creates such organic results that it's textured and rumpled without feeling overquilted, you know?
The best part? When my brother spotted this quilt after I bound it in red for a bit of 'pop' he said, hm, I like this quilt. Was is das??? My brother, who has never commented on anything I've ever made, including that pillow I refashioned for him??? Liking a quilt that I had made???
Wow. Apparently all the animals won him over. I say 'apparently' because my brother's mixture of sarcasm and Placating Jessica is a little hard to read sometimes.
So ... this means I finally got a quilt onto the elusive brother's bed. Which is good, because I noticed mom's stack of quilting projects is growing rather thin, which means that maybe I need to finish up another top and mail it to her. We're not out of the winter season just yet.
5 comments:
I love it! and you are right your mom does great work :) It is very cool that you can work on a project together like this.
I love this quilt: the prints and colors, the random arrangement, the neutral border with the poppy red binding. And you mother's quilting fits it perfectly! And living will all males, I can relate to the difficulty of getting an appropriate response to a crafty thing that one is so proud of.
It's SO NEAT that you and your mom collaborate in this way. And that quilt looks really cool. Congratulations on your brother liking it!
Cool, and I love the zodiac idea!
Those are some great chicken fabrics! I recognize a few from a hideous chicken quilt I made for my mom, plus you have more and a much better color scheme.
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