Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Shira's Quilt

Shira's always liked color. She liked it when she was little and she likes it now.
When it was time to make Shira a quilt for her twin size bed, I knew it had to have color. I also wanted it to be a quilt she could grow with, and so didn't want any one color to dominate the others. Another thing I wanted to take into account is her personality, which has always been very dynamic. This is a person who's always felt comfortable being physical. When younger she was constantly running, skipping, jumping, hopping, climbing, whatever. She plays sports and is full of energy. She learns things by doing them.
So the dynamic aspect needed, for me, to be present in her quilt (much as it was in her baby quilt, I just now realize).
I decided on the fun, and sweet pattern of bow ties (or candy wrapper as it's sometimes called), which I thought would work over the years for her. The dynamic aspect came out in using different color fabric for each bow tie and in the arrangement. Instead of the usual lining up the bow ties in rows, with each bow tie angled the same way, I decided to organize them in concentric squares, and put the whole thing on point, so it creates concentric diamond shapes. Like so:


And a detail:


The bow ties are made from many different fabrics. And the whole thing is brought to cohesion with the lavender fabric for background. This works well also because purple has been a constant favorite of Shira's. Another element that helped bring the quilt together is the multiple borders around the patchwork. I have 3 thin borders, including one in the lavender, and one thicker one.
The whole thing is quilted onto a store-bought blanket and bound together. The blanket is dark purple and so that worked well together as well. The blanket has worn since I got it for her, and the quilt is now her lighter blanker, reserved for warmer nights, or as a second blanket for really cold nights (like the ones we had a little while ago).
She still likes it, and is still a dynamic person. I enjoy looking at it and, as always, enjoying seeing how fabric continues evolving in meaning as it gets incorporated into different projects, and the recipients evolve and developed.

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