Monday, November 17, 2014

Progression through a baby quilt

Using our son, Clark's shirts, including his logos for a baby quilt was the 
suggestion and request of his daughter, Lindsey Adams Fieldsted. 
Lindsey and Brandon's first child, Clark and Jill's first grandchild  is due soon.
Clark's wife,  Jill, sent me a couple of boxes of Clark's shirts
to begin designing the quilt for Lindsey. 
There were a variety of types of fabrics and the colors you see above.
 Seeing this variety and the colors of fabric along with Clark's logos
made me rethink the idea of a traditional pattern or even 
a completely geometric design.
 Taking the shirts apart and looking at the pockets, 
cuffs and collars gave me some different ideas to work on.
Wanting to incorporate the Clark Adams Company, 
Doors and Windows logos gave me the final idea.
 Starting to play with this idea of a quaint story book village 
that would incorporate windows and doors, 
since that was so much a part of Clark's life, 
I began to put individual buildings together.
 When I had completed many little buildings I started assembling them 
on a background. A lot of the time was spent arranging and rearranging 
the various little buildings keeping in mind a 36 inches square size. 
Each element's color and size determined where it would 
finally be placed as I was trying to work from 
larger in the foreground to smaller buildings in the distance.
 Pinning the village and then hanging it without sewing it 
gave me a chance to see where more windows or doors were needed and 
where some fabrics or buildings had to be eliminated.
 The sewing to the background and then final quilting began. 
However, at this stage I kept finding places where 
more was needed or deleted.
The shirts and logos were washed along with a thin matt and 
soft flannel backing so the whole quilt can be thrown in a washer.
 Knowing that I wanted to bind with a satin blanket binding 
I tried three different colors. I was not happy with any of them
but felt this color did blend and would be a better fit for a baby.
The finished baby quilt is approximately 38 by 36 inches.
This detail shows a bit of the green better. 
Some of the buildings that look black are really a forest green.
This quilt is now ready for a baby to lay on or play with. 
I imagine it will be a bit like a story telling quilt about 
a wonderful grandfather he will hear stories about.

No comments:

Post a Comment