The Last Stitch

Some of you may remember when I started piecing together a quilt.

One year and seven months later I put the final stitches into this huge project. It is made to fit our king-sized bed or to be used as a snuggly warm quilt for watching movies and cuddling by the fire.

The pattern is a simple nine-patch. The quilt top fabrics are 100% cotton. The quilt batting is 100% natural cotton fibers. The backing is 100% cottom muslin. I chose the color pallet based on a more masculine preference so as not to be girlish because after all it is a quilt for Steve.

A new quilt is a little too perfect for me. Can you see how very smooth and pristine the fabrics look? It doesn't look inviting and wonderful to my eye. I have a technique I use to age the quilt so it starts out looking as if it is older and has been used and loved for many years.

When starting a quilt top I always wash my fabrics first. Then iron them nice and cripsly. For the backing I don't wash it. I leave it as it. Once the quilt has been finished it is stiffer than I like and too much like it has been starched. So I wash it. The backing, having not been pre-washed will then shrink. Inside the batting fibers will also shrink. This pulls the pre-shrunk top into lovely soft puckers and wrinkles. Now it looks aged and loved and is super soft and feels more warm.

Most importantly the quilt is labled. This is the very last step for me. Creating a message to make the gift personal and more intimate. This is also a very large part of documenting the quilt hould something hapen to it - be it lost, stolen, or destroyed. Loosing a hand made quilt can be like loosing a friend. If you are searching for a lost quilt you can list it with Lost Quilt Come Home. Hopefully someone will find your quilt and return it to you.

I try to photograph the quilt in progress so that I have the story of its creation. The journal entry will also be a permanent document of this quilt.

I would love to hear from other quilters. Anyone out there?