choosing a 2nd quilt

[tielan]

One more item on my 'to do' list right now is working out the second quilt I'll be entering into the Sydney Quilt Show this year.

First quilt is a no-brainer:


I'll quilt it over the next few months (I hope) on my domestic machine.

--

Second quilt?

Well, that's more difficult. I have a number of quilt tops that need quilting, and at this point, I'm mostly debating if I can be bothered quilting them myself.

My options are:

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend



Finished several years ago, as yet unquilted. Might as well do this one myself.


3:10 to Mendocino


A lot more movement, a lot more interest, but that fabric is incredibly precious - it's original Mendocino Mermaids by Heather Ross!


Break Free Or Build Upon



I've been trying to enter it into the quilt show for the last two years and each time I was stymied by life, the universe, and everything, so at this point, I'm just tired of having it around. UGH GET OUT OF MY SIGHT.

--

I don't enter the quilt show to win prizes - my quilting's not that good. I enter to display new ideas, broaden minds, and/or make other people think, "Hey, I like that; maybe I could do that too?"

Thoughts?

Comments

[gaffsie]

I'm not sure I can offer much in the way of advice. My brain is stuck on "pretty!". Maybe do the Diamonds one? Just to be done with it?

[tielan]

From your response and others, it looks like Diamonds is the winner...

[velithya]

In terms of intricacy the green and white one at the bottom certainly looks the most impressive! And I really like the colours in it, too. That one's got my vote!

[tielan]

One thing I was thinking of doing with the green and white one was cutting it in half crosswise and making smaller twin quilts out of it, It's just so damn HUGE.

I'll have to work that out, though, sometime when I have the space to do so...

[velithya]

How big is it actually? :O
I love the long diagonals myself but if it suits you better to make two smaller ones, and you can arrange the pattern so that happens nicely, then go for it!

[unicornduke]

they are all super impressive! the bottom one is awesome and so is the diamond one!

[tielan]

Looks like the diamond one and the green one are both favourites.

[wpadmirer]

That diamond one is beautiful. Though the other patterns seem more traditional. (My grandmother quilted and I have a quilt she made for me.) I love the fact that it's got weird fabrics in it, including polyester fabrics that had just started to be popular when I was a child.

[tielan]

Un-traditional works really well, though. The guild whose show this is, while more modern than they were a decade ago, are still catching up to Modern Quilting.

It's lovely to hear about people's heirloom quilts. I certainly hope that the quilts I give away get treasured long and hard.

[dragonlady7]

I've got no advice, I just think they're all beautiful. I should start going to quilt shows, my not-in-laws (my partner of 17 years' mom and aunt) are accomplished quilters but mostly they make things for charities and such. I bet if I asked they'd bring me along to shows, though.
I think that's what attracts me to quilting-- not the precision and tradition so much as the way there are always new ideas and things. Both Dude's mom and aunt are so often experimental in their methods and techniques and I love that. (Last year his mom made 52 lap quilts, to prove she could; this year she's decided she'll do fewer but no two the same. She is retired, which is how she manages, but still.)

I am still struggling with the concept of actually cutting my pieces the right shape with seam allowance and not constantly making everything slightly undersized because I am terrible at this, lol. Someday.

[tielan]

Quilt shows are just amazing for getting to see the range of stuff that people make. I'm always blown away by the range of things that people make, and frequently with such precision and care!

And wow, 52 quilts of any kind! That's incredible, even retired!

For quilting, I find the easiest shape to do is squares. Just squares. And then, all you need to do is keep a constant seam allowance. Then you can work on things from there!

[pensnest]

These are all beautiful, although the top and bottom would be my own favourites. I lack the attention to detail to be even a half-way competent quilt maker, but they are glorious things to look upon.

[tielan]

Top and bottom. Definitely the preferred picks!

I do enjoy making them; colour and light and creativity with fabric...

[kore]

Those are all so gorgeous, but I personally like the top and bottom ones best too. The Diamonds one is incredible.

[tielan]

Would you believe the Diamonds quilt is an optical illusion? Each white diamond is made up of four triangles... :)

And top and bottom appear to be the favourites.

[beatrice_otter]

I have been quilting with the women's group at my church. Well. Quilting as in pieced-and-tied, but not actually quilted. And all the quilts go to charity. They meet once a week from September through April, with an average of six women a week, and turn out 200 quilts a year for charity. Some of the quilts are sold to raise money, but most of them go to Lutheran World Relief, which ships them all over the world to distribute in refugee camps and the like. They're not anything fancy--most of them don't have actual blocks, it's just large chunks of fabric sewn together--but most of them are attractive. The fabric is all stuff that people have donated out of their stashes, or stuff that got picked up cheap at garage sales, so it's all KINDS of stuff.

[tielan]

Yes, there are quilting groups that do that kind of charity quilting. Mostly made up of older women - 60s and above - although I know one or two younger ones who are getting involved, but not at the charity level. (They're just quilting groups, but they do regular charity/giveaway quilts.)

[booksarelife]

I love all of those, but my personal favorite is the second one, though I get not wanting to use the fabric! The church that I went to as a kid/go to while home sometimes once did a charity (potentially something AIDS related) quilt and I remember doing a square!! I'm eternally impressed by quilters!!

[alexseanchai]

Here's a Facebook rally point for a project to make quilts for the families of the Christchurch victims. I figured since you can participate at a much lower postage cost than me (like, even if my contribution were one quilt square and yours one quilt, you'd probably pay less postage), I wanted to make sure you knew about it, in case you want to participate.