Last spring I was taken by the pattern by Cynthia Tomaszewski, 'Sitting Pretty'. Only thing I didn't like was that it was designed in 30's fabrics, which I don't care for. In fact, I refer to them as 'gaggy 30's fabrics'. Yet when shopping for fabrics for this, I didn't see any other types that I felt would make this work for me, and I ended up buying 30's for the project. What I have so far is at right. I think what I like about it is the mix of free form shapes with the old fashioned fabrics. All the pieces are buttonhole stitched by hand. Something I started just to have handwork ready for car trips and watching dvds. I didn't get to the final borders her pattern called for though.
This was partly because I realized that I have no place to hang such a wallhanging. It's definitely not my decorating style at home or at work. So I had to let this sink in; percolate a little. Finally I decided I needed to recharge this project. Think about it differently. Going out on a limb, I bought more 30's fabric, and will now work to turn this into a bed sized quilt, using the four blocks as a medallion with paper pieced sections all around. Hopefully the fabric style will tie together the varying styles of construction. Wish me luck. I'm softening up a bit about this fabric style, but not so that I want to spend much more time working with it. In fact, I truly evaluated calling it done, quilting it and having this over with, or investing more time and money in making it bedsize, and maybe useful. The latter won out.
I made quite a big deal amongst friends about my anti-30's attitude. Now I'm a bit embarrassed about this project going in this direction. I'm waiting to see how the expanded version of the quilt looks before I admit I've gone over to the 30's dark side. Then maybe I'll show and tell it to the guild.
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