Quilts and clothes

Where is the time going? It's the 9th of March, and I'm far behind where I would like to be at this time. OK -- not so far behind, but it feels like I'm way behind. And about the only thing I can work on right now are my presentations (two more French ones to finish up) and the homework for the sew alongs -- there are five different classes this weekend - the homework for NONE of them is finished. Although I am making progress. 

Note to self -- I will NOT be doing so many sew alongs next year. Actually, FIVE of them finish in June, so the craziness will end as two of the five are pretty intense. Once those are done, the rest of the year should be easy. The trick will be to say NO - well, not say no, but limit how many new ones get picked up! 

I mentioned yesterday how I hate those long diagonal seams in a quilt. They seem to go on forever! Someone posted a link to this great way of avoiding those long seams. Have a look. It's definitely one way to achieve the same thing. I'm not sure I would want to do it. I'm a big complainer, and I stick to my routine, but I like to keep things in order, and I can see the corners going on the wrong side in the example. But if one was careful, it's a brilliant way to sew it together. 

Have you ever been somewhere and seen a piece of clothing that you think would make a good quilt? Yep -- it's happened to me a couple of times. Or do you see the inspiration for designing a quilt on someone's shirt?  

However, if I were in line behind the person wearing this shirt, I don't know that I'd be whipping out my rotary cutter any time soon. 

A calico print

What does this remind you of? It makes me think of small calico prints from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Hmmm --- I'm trying to find some examples of those prints. Instead, I found this article on the real version of calico. It's actually a type of cloth, not the style of prints. For some reason, we've called those small prints - calicos. I wonder why? 

If you search for calico print florals, this is a sampling of what comes up. 

A sampling of calico prints

Yep -- that's more what I have in mind when I think of calico prints. Well, all of those, but not the big floral in the bottom left-hand corner. 

And I'm sure that I have some calico prints in my collection, like this one. 

Calico print on a small print

This is calico, and honestly, I thought we were past those days. 

So why am I telling you all this? That blue calico print is from DH's shirt! He recently purchased and probably paid a pretty penny for it. Seriously???? He really likes it!

I can't bear to look at it! At least it's safe from me wanting to cut it up. 

OH MY GOSH --- I decided to search men's floral dress shirts, and I had ONLY typed in men's, and floral dress shirt popped up. How the heck can Google make that association? I've no idea, but I think Google is way more intelligent than we think it is. 

Anyway, here's the results of my search. 

Images for men's floral shirts

We need to ask ourselves, what other fabrics have moved out of vogue with the quilters? We can quickly get the men's wear world to buy up the surplus, and we can move on to something new! 

What was amazing about his shirt fabric is that it's NOT bright or highly saturated. It's got tones of grey in it, just like the calicos did. That is so weird!!! Well, I'm definitely not in the know about fashion, but it's a strange world, to say the least. 

And then there are us quilters, wanting to cut up quilts to make coats. There is NOTHING new out there as we did that years ago. I guess we mostly MADE quilted fabric and then made the jacket. But quilted clothing has made a HUGE comeback. Although, Mary Fons wrote a pretty passionate plea to quilters to not cut up old quilts to make coats. We can't keep every quilt, and I say that unless the quilt has some value, then cut away. And by value, I mean historical or sentimental. Otherwise, it's JUST a quilt. 

Here's a link to a site where the blogger makes the quilted sections for the jacket and then makes the jacket. She does NOT cut up an old quilt. 

Here's a link to Mary Fon's video on why people should not use vintage quilts. 

I've thought about it, but I would rather make the quilted fabric specifically for a quilt than cut up a perfectly good quilt to make a jacket. We can make vintage-looking fabric! Maybe this is a good class for the fall? OH -- I did say NO or limit what I do!! 

However, I know one quilt in particular which will never be cut up into a jacket. That's my STIFF as a board Halloween quilt. For sure, I will NEVER make another one this way. How the heck do you store this???? OK -- so I want to make another one and NOT use that stiff batting inside and see what result I get. 

My Halloween quilt which is STIFF as a board

That's a wrap for today. I'm off to spin class -- yet again! I look at it this way -- I love to snack, and getting out on the bike or the walking makes me totally guilt-free about the amount of snacking I do! 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!