finished: roy g. zig quilt

Tags

finished quilts, roy g. zig, scrap attack string fever

A few photos to prove that I’ve finished this beast, yes?

 

At 64” x 84”, if this isn’t the biggest quilt I’ve ever shoved through the Janome, it’s definitely close.

 

You can see the straight-line quilting a bit better here. I chose to follow the pattern of some of the zigs, rather than just go up and down the quilt. It turned out okay, but there was some teeth-gnashing as I turned those corners, and got folds of fabric caught under the walking foot filling in middle spaces.

 

And good news for my husband, who has to move all these quilts this winter (we ARE moving out of this tiny apartment, no matter what!): I am giving this one away.

 

Yep. My professor friends who live in Phoenix have only a very small throw-size quilt that I made in my early quilting days (completely hand-pieced and hand-quilted, hand-sewn binding and all). He is very tall, and I felt so sorry when they sent me a photo of him trying to nap under the little quilt. He definitely needed a bigger one. And they needed one that both of them could snuggle under! Their anniversary was ten days ago, and her birthday is two days from now, so a perfect excuse.

 

I backed the quilt in scraps. The spirit of a scrap quilt is “buy nothing new,” yes? I tried to carry the rainbow idea onto the back. The other side is sky, sun, grass, earth.

 

The quilt is bound in the white Memoir print from Violet Craft’s Madrona Road, which I have now stashed and re-stashed. Now I need to re-re-stash it. Ha!

(P.S. If this is the first time you’re reading about this quilt, please know that I used Rachel @ Stitched in Color’s Ziggy Strings tutorial to construct the blocks, and just laid out the blocks differently. Easy peasy!)

Thanks again for putting up with so many photos of this one. I’m proud of it–but I’m MORE than ready to bundle it into the mail and move on to the next thing! Onward!

roy g. zig string top/festival of strings

Tags

roy g. zig, scrap attack string fever

Oh, Rachel @ Stitched in Color imagined that our Festival of Strings might be ladies in sunhats in a backyard, slinging our quilts over a clothesline and swilling lemonade. So lovely! So southern!

Never having been one to play along, I chose to sling my quilt overa huge metal rhino, natch.

I usually don’t make much of finished quilt tops, but Rachel’s deadline is midnight on 5/30 and I’d be cutting it close to have this quilted by then. And no rhino pictures.

I did make a back

 

and this is ready to baste

 

and the Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild meets this Saturday, so I really want to have it quilted and bound to show off. Can I make it?

 

Really, I used all string scraps, from various Trader Joe’s bags in my closet. The white is Kona Bone. I used Rachel’s Ziggy Strings tutorial (so fun! DO IT). My husband helped me pick off the foundation paper backing.

And the rhino lives at New England Biolabs in Ipswich MA, where Nate works. He does not have a name. Roy?

 

roy g. zig

Tags

roy g. zig, scrap attack string fever, string fever, string quilt

Minutes after I hit “publish” on my last post (“happy Marathon Monday”), my brother texted me from Tennessee: “please tell me you didn’t go to watch the marathon today. don’t freak out, but…”

While I have very little right to freak out about what we are apparently calling the “Boston bombing” (!!!! my city! in the name of an “x horrible situation”), I am shaken. We live 15 miles north of the Tobin Bridge, and Nate works in Ipswich, not in the city, so we are far out of any potential danger. But there’s something about seeing reporters broadcasting from streets I USED to walk every day when in I worked in publishing (on Berkeley St.), seeing destruction on the sidewalks in front of my former dentist’s office, the bar where I used to go with my fellow EA’s for cheap waffle fries, hear about the Atlantic Fish Co where I’ve eaten oysters and swilled sauv blanc…

and that’s not even the library, where I’ve also spent a good deal of time. If you’re not safe in front of the Boston Public Library, where ARE you safe?

I’ve never not felt safe in Boston. And really, I still feel like this is a very safe place to be. I’ve told lots of people that I feel like this city is filled with good people, people who won’t watch you struggle and fail to react. People who WILL help you lift your stroller onto the T. Or who will help you decide whether to get off at Park or Copley, even if you’re calling it “Cope-ly.”

Turns out when I’m mad and sad, starting a new project is pretty much the ticket to helping me feel just a little better. And a rainbow project! Well. Color always makes ME feel a little better about my world.

18 blocks done, out of 56. Using Rachel’s tutorial (so.fun.and.addicting.) How could I resist? Calling it Roy G. Zig. (“Big Zig” might also have worked?)