March 11, 2006
Another Fulled-Wool Quilt
I finished another fulled wool quilt today:
It measures 50 x 53". The back is pieced cotton, the batting is a cotton sheet.
Felix (L) and Atticus couldn't resist the lure of the lights and the quilt on the floor for the photo session.
The squares of pink wool are mostly medium to heavy weight. The few lightweight squares I used are carefully positioned so they are not adjacent to any of the ribbed squares, to minimize stretching and distortion.
The pieced pink sections in the inner border are scraps from the squares without any lightweight pieces.
The white/off-white wool I used in the border came from 3 different sweaters, two of which were lightweight ribbed angora blends. Angora blends make soft, very tactile-pleasing felt, but in this particular quilt I learned just how difficult they can be to work with when they are 1) ribbed and 2) used in quantity with heavier weight felts. I wanted the look of the ribs running parallel to the quilt sides, so I carefully pieced that arrangement. Once I started quilting I learned the folly of that idea--the felt wanted to stretch and it was very hard to control. Too late I realized that I should have pieced the white inner borders with squares, alternating the ribs 90 degrees with each one. I think that would have kept things manageable.
The result of all the stretching and distortion are most evident on the cotton side, in the bunching along the quilting lines. When I finished quilting there was some bunching and unevenness in the wool felt, but most of that disappeared with some intensive steaming. (I used a steam generator, the kind with a separate water tank and hose connected to the iron.)
Overall, I am pleased with the quilt. It was made as a gift and the colors were chosen with the recipient in mind. All the materials are recycled fabric, the cottons are mostly from shirts, the border yardage was a piece I bought at a yard sale. The wools are fulled sweaters.
¶ 12:45 PM
It measures 50 x 53". The back is pieced cotton, the batting is a cotton sheet.
Felix (L) and Atticus couldn't resist the lure of the lights and the quilt on the floor for the photo session.
The squares of pink wool are mostly medium to heavy weight. The few lightweight squares I used are carefully positioned so they are not adjacent to any of the ribbed squares, to minimize stretching and distortion.
The pieced pink sections in the inner border are scraps from the squares without any lightweight pieces.
The white/off-white wool I used in the border came from 3 different sweaters, two of which were lightweight ribbed angora blends. Angora blends make soft, very tactile-pleasing felt, but in this particular quilt I learned just how difficult they can be to work with when they are 1) ribbed and 2) used in quantity with heavier weight felts. I wanted the look of the ribs running parallel to the quilt sides, so I carefully pieced that arrangement. Once I started quilting I learned the folly of that idea--the felt wanted to stretch and it was very hard to control. Too late I realized that I should have pieced the white inner borders with squares, alternating the ribs 90 degrees with each one. I think that would have kept things manageable.
The result of all the stretching and distortion are most evident on the cotton side, in the bunching along the quilting lines. When I finished quilting there was some bunching and unevenness in the wool felt, but most of that disappeared with some intensive steaming. (I used a steam generator, the kind with a separate water tank and hose connected to the iron.)
Overall, I am pleased with the quilt. It was made as a gift and the colors were chosen with the recipient in mind. All the materials are recycled fabric, the cottons are mostly from shirts, the border yardage was a piece I bought at a yard sale. The wools are fulled sweaters.
¶ 12:45 PM
