Making a quanket
August 2015

While I usually just post my finished quilts, I thought it might be fun to capture a bit of the process for making a quanket.

1. This one began with the choice of the fleece backing, shown in the top of the picture: light and hot pink flowers, complimented with rust colored flowers. Sometimes I will begin a quilt by choosing the fabrics I want to use, sometimes a quilt block pattern I like, but in this case, fleece came first.
2. Then off I went to my leftover stash and scraps drawers to see what I had in the pink and orange color values, and chose, so far, what you see in the picture.
3. Next came finding a pattern that would work not only with the fabrics I had on hand, but also a design that would work nicely with the design on the fleece. This was a little more challenging than most of my other quilts that use solid color fleece for the backing. I liked Melissa Corry’s Star Surround quilt pattern, as it almost mirrors the flower design on the fleece.
4. And now it is block building time. 9 down and 21 to go! If I did my calculations correctly, this will finish at 4’x5′.

I sew in a closet in my office. Yes, a closet. It is just a normal closet, about 2′ deep x 6′ wide. Years ago, when space here at home was at a premium, I converted the closet in my office to house my table sewing machine, supplies, etc., and put bi-fold doors on the closet to make the opening bigger when the doors are open. I have recently added felt to the bi-fold door (shown in the picture), which works exceptionally well for my design wall. Since it is on the closet door that is literally about 2 feet from my left hand, it is easy to sew a block and then stick it on the door!

My husband teases me that since we are now empty nesters, that we have plenty of room for me to ‘spread out’ and not sew in a closet. But, I’ve gotten so used to it over the years, I’m not sure what I would do with all that extra space around me! 🙂