Wednesday, December 29, 2010

"Shoji Garden"



I finally finished this last week. I saw a similar quilt when I was visiting my family in Sacramento in January/February. Went to a quilt show and fell in love with the quilt so I had to come home and make it. Wish I knew the designer of the quilt. I didn't use a pattern, just copied the visual.

I'd been collecting oriental fabrics forever....an affinity probably because my mother is Japanese. I made my mother a Grandmother's Fan quilt using orientals and the cream in the borders and sashing is left over from that quilt. This quilt is going to be a gift for my older sister.

I really disappointed myself with the quilting on this. I learned a valuable lesson...or shall I say lessons. One...don't be in a hurry (which I was) and two...stretch yourself and experiment. Being a relatively new longarm quilter I was afraid to mess up the quilt with stitching. I feel like I messed up the quilt anyway because I made the overall meander too large. I had the opportunity to make this quilt a spectacular quilt with custom stitching but was in too much of a hurry and afraid. Next time I "mess" up a quilt I want it to be because I didn't get the effect I wanted but knowing I tried to learn and do something new. Don't get me wrong, I still love the quilt and I know it will be greatly appreciated, but I also know what it could have been.

1 comment:

Betty said...

We are our own worst critics! I've seen your work and have an idea what you perceive as "messed up" quilting the rest of us wouldn't see as such! It's beautiful, Cindy... your sister is one lucky gal!