Thursday, February 28, 2008

A Baby Blanket and More of What I Got In Chicago

I finished the baby blanket. Yippee! Sewing it together wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Though I still think it could have been worked as one piece. The recipe called for fringe, but I don't care for fringe. I don't like how it frays and it just seems like something to drag on the floor and get all linty. Plus I think a baby would have a hard time resisting the temptation to pull the fringe out and eat it.

Instead, I added a double stitch around the edge and capped it off with a crab stitch. Far more elegant, don't you think? I hope the baby will be content cuddling with it.

You know how every time you go home, your mom gives you stuff to take with you? While I was in Chicago last week, my mom gave me a mystery bag of fabric. Apparently, she started collecting it thinking she would make a quilt. But she didn't know anything about quilting when she started collecting the fabric, and never learned to quilt. So she decided to give it to me. From the looks of it, most of the fabric has been hanging around since the early 1970's.

There's this pretty pink silk dress. Very 80's.

I'm pretty sure these are cotton. But they are very heavy. Like upholstery fabric. The funny thing is these patterns are back in style.

These are either satin or polyester. I'm leaning towards satin. I've heard that polyesters from the 70's were not very good quality. But these fabrics are in excellent condition.

I don't know what these are. I think the blue might be some kind of cotton or linen with a shiny finish. I think that washed out fabric is polyester. It looks like a piece of commercially produced baby quilt. There's batting and a backing and it is machine quilted.

I like these fabrics. I would never have bought them for myself - even if you could still find them. Now I have the opportunity to try something different. I think these fabrics will be especially good for book covers and bags. I'm thinking of experimenting with paints and embroidery on these too. Especially those solid cottons. So even though I didn't do any quilt related stuff on my trip to Chicago, I still managed to add to my stash. You gotta love moms.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi City Girl,
I'm Nancy from the west coast.. I'm a quilter too but I havent gotten into dying fabric yet. I love your blog. It's amazing how many things you do. I'll have to try that next. I have a good tip for polyester fibers. Cut a small piece and light the end on fire and then dip it in water. If it has melted it's polyester. If the ends have just singed then it's a natural fiber.

City Girl Quilter said...

Dying is addictive. It appeals to the mad scientist in me. I hope we get more water in Georgia so I can get back to dying. But all of these things are intertwined. I do believe I have figured out a way to incorporate beaded crochet into a quilt. So it all comes together eventually.

Thanks for the tip. On closer inspection, I think some of those fabrics are polyester after all. I'll have to give that singe test a try.