Sunday, January 28, 2007

WISPs

Well, I have quite a collection of WISPs (Works In Slow Progress). Some I have mentioned before - like "Face". (See the last entry to my Blog). Here are two more.

The first, was the Mystery Quilt run by the Quilters Guild of Great Britain, published a couple of years ago. A rather interesting, and quite challenging design, I found it hard to make the corners and points match. It certainly tested my skills:


The first photo shows the top- don't look too closely at the points..... This still awaits quilting. At present, it is held together with safety pins.


The second photo shows the back - pieced mostly from remnants left after the "top" was completed.

The next unfinished quilt - partly quilted at present - was the result of my dislike of ironing. Yes, I do not like ironing clothes, but give me a selection of freshly washed fabrics..........
The fabrics used here all came from a selection of my husband's old shirts. (I cannot bring myself to throw away fabric). Oh, how I enjoyed cutting them up! The floral print and the dark blue came from a couple of old blouses of mine. and were added to balanced the otherwise pale colours. The white was part of an old, much washed cotton sheet.
I did not have to plan the colours too much, since my dear husband prefers shirts in a narrow range of colours.
As an experiment, I pieced them using my overlocker. I needed to learn how to use it, so had a lot of fun doing this. The quilting was by machine.
I really can't remember why I gave up on this, since it really won't take much more work to finish it.
The first photograph shows the top.



The second photo shows detail of the stitching and also the construction of the blocks.


The last photo shows the back of the quilt. You can see how much quilting I have already done. I feel quite ashamed to think its been hanging around for a couple of years waiting to be completed!

The back has been pieced using bits left over from the top. I just wanted the effect to be random, since the quilting would be mostly swirls and irregular quadrilaterals.


5 comments:

Feeling Simply Quilty said...

works in slow progress?? I've never heard that one, but, I know I've got a lot of them also.

Great job on those quilts though. A finished quilt is always better than a perfect quilt. Piecing the back takes a bit longer, but, it uses up the stash a lot quicker, which is what I'm trying to do myself. I've probably spent thousands on fabric I haven't even used!!

Feeling Simply Quilty said...

thanks for leaving a comment on my blog. I like that video as well, it never fails to make me smile when I watch it.

Barbara Cheeseman said...

I do like the quilts, Mandy. The red/black/pale is very striking. Shirting works very nicely too, doesn't it. Piecing some bits for the back is interesting as well - I think I like the back of the shirting one more than the front!!

Mandy said...

Barbara, I agree with you. I really like the back of the shirt quilt, preferring it to the front.
Thanks for all your comments.

Susan said...

Very Gees Bend of you. =) I like the front and the back, both!