Friday, November 6, 2015

Then and Now

It's great to look back at quilts of days gone by.  I recently took some time to refold and reorganize my stack of quilts that reside in my spare room.  After looking at a few of them, I decided to snap a few pictures of this one and blog about it. 



This is a Blooming' 9 Patch and it came to fruition after my first visit to Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.  I went with a non quilter and after we were on quilt overload, we headed out of town to find our car parked way down the road into Sisters.  I stopped to take a final glace at the town, and saw a Blooming 9 patch done up in blues.  I was drawn to it like a magnet.


After pondering how this was put together, another viewer pointed out the corner and showed me how it was pieced.  I was captivated by this organized chaos.  We continued to our car, and headed back to the I-5 via Salem.  That required a stop at Greenbaums.  The doors were being locked as the last few customers left and I was 1/2 way down the block when my gf mentioned she saw the book that this blue quilt was in.  I hurried back, knocked on the door and made my final purchase of the day.


I love this quilt, although I don't decorate with pink and am not really drawn to this color.  Now that it's been many years, I looked at this with different eyes last week.  I love how I made it go from light to dark and back to medium values, that was not planned. Here's where I would change it up, I used a gingham check after the center toile, and it lacks the movement of the rest of the fabrics.  That's truly the only change I would make after all these years. 

It was interesting to look at this in a new light.  We evolve and our tastes change, but to still love something after moving to a whole new genre of quilting and fabrics is surprising and it makes me smile!
Keep stitching,
Sharon 
#grassrootsquilting on Instagram

7 comments:

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

I love the Blooming 9 patch too. Your pink version is very pretty. I don't decorate in pink either but I still love to make pink quilts.

Lori said...

Fun trip down memory lane and see how our quilting has evolved.

Janet O. said...

Curious, Sharon, about what made you choose the pink if you aren't drawn to the color? : )
Blooming 9-patch is a fascinating design. I have never made one because I think I would mess if up frequently and just be unsewing as much as I was sewing.

Kyle said...

Thanks for sharing a lovely quilt from your past. It is good to revisit the quilts we've made . They help us to see what's lead us to the stage we're in now, I know for me it's almost impossible to look at a quilt I've made and not find something i wish I could change.

Mimi said...

Your quilt is really very lovely. I have to admit....I was telling myself I needed to get rid of some of my quilts. They are overtaking the house, but as I went through them I remembered why I made them and how much I loved them then and still. I couldn't part with a one ...just yet. Yes, our tastes change over time, but I think our quilts bring back such good memories and that is why we still love our older ones yet. I hope to make a blooming 9-patch some day. It is on my bucket list for sure.

Karen said...

Interesting quilt. It looks to me like nine patch blocks and a one patch. The fabrics are doing most of the work. Would have such a different look with a different style of fabric. Thank you for sharing a quilt from your past. Our older quilts show the progression in style that we take on our quilt making journey.

Sharyn Mallow Woerz said...

my quilting history goes back to 1971. Of all the quilts I've made (and I've loved them all) this would be the only one I'd love to make again.

I made it in early 2000, strictly from stash and it shows it :) there isn't anything thoughtful or artful about the color transitions as I seldom buy yardage so the changes were based on what I had. Still beautiful!
thank you for sharing yours, Sharyn in Kalama