Quilt Give Away

I have, or at least had, over 40 quilts piling up on my "quilt storage bed".  I decided it's time to start re-homing them.  I'd sell them, but it's difficult to sell quilts for what they are worth in terms of time, skill, materials, etc.  Most people don't understand that the materials alone can mount into the hundreds of dollars for one quilt.  

Also, I'm lazy.  I have no interest in selling on line.  I don't want to deal with mailing, fraudulent claims of non-delivery or damage, etc.  So... I am giving them away.  But not to just anyone.  I have many special friends and family members that I consider "quilt worthy" and it has always been my intention to give each of them a quilt.  So as I see them, which is challenging in these COVID Times, I have been asking if they would like to choose a quilt to take home with them.  So far, I've given six away....  

Joe's niece, Marie, and her fiancé, Stuart, asked for Tropical Galaxy.  

Michelle and Mike liked Flock.

Alyssa got two.  Hounds-tooth for herself and Everyday Magic for her daughter, Leah.

My Bro-in Law, Karl, asked for the Viking quilt when I was making it several years ago.  So I gave it to him.

This is one of my really early quilts.  I called it Time Machine (it's an alarm clock - get it? :) ).  I gave it to sister and bro-in-law - Carol and Dan.

I need to get the sisters and bro-in-laws to "model" their quilts.  Next trip to Kelowna that will happen (if I remember!).

Vikings!!!!

Run for your life!  The Vikings are here!

OK - just kidding - it's a quilt.  What else would it be?

I picked up the pattern last year at the Red Deer Quilt Show.  It's the Fabriculous Viking (Pattern No 10), a very simple pattern actually - just rectangles with Viking faces appliqued onto the centre of each one.  We'd actually been watching the Viking series around that time so it was timely.  I couldn't resist. 

Here it is, almost a year later, and it's finished.  I started cutting the rectangles almost immediately, but got stalled and didn't get back to it until before Christmas.  Now it's one more "finish".  It's a really fun little quilt.

I had a collection of funky geometrics in sort of darker colours that I though would work well , and added a few lighter ones  - for the rectangles.   I had a stack of solids that worked well with the prints for the faces and I had the backing and binding fabrics.  So essentially, this is a quilt from stash. Et voila!

I used my Scan'n'Cut fully - I scanned the face patterns then cut them.  The trick with using this fancy-ass gadget is that the fabric needs to be fused to something like Heat'n'Bond.  This is what I've been using and it works very well.  So the appliques are a bit stiff.  I put a sleeve on the quilt so it can be hung if it's too stiff to use as an actual quilt.

I've decided to put sleeves on all my quilts going forward.  That way they can either be hung just to look at and/or hung for photo taking purposes.  Once the kitchen reno is done, I'm going to get Husband working on an apparatus that I can use to hang my quilts so I can get better photos of them in outside light. This throwing on the floor or draping over furniture thing just doesn't make me happy.  But I digress....

The only other thing I would say about this quilt is that if I were to do it again, I think I might find a solid and put that behind the face section - I don't like the prints showing through on that part.  Next time for me, but if you decide to make this quilt, it's something to consider, depending on what your prints are like (if you use prints).

Here are the pix:

I quilted them all roughly the same.  "Rough" being the operative word.  I didn't fuss as I often do.  Vikings are rough and ready sorts so I thought the quilting could reflect this.  I didn't satin stitch the applique and didn't make an effort to get really close to the edge with the quilting.  So if it is used, I imagine the applique will eventually start to fray out a bit around the edges (even with the fusing - especially if it gets washed).  But I think that will just enhance the Viking image of being "rough around the edges".  😎

I did some quilting in the beards - too big an area not to quilt.  Similarly with the helmets.

I didn't use a ruler - usually I do.  Again, I didn't want perfection for these guys.  It turned out pretty well, I think.

Here are a few close ups.  I used my usual Glide thread on the faces (top and bobbin), but for the backgrounds I used Wonderfil Spagetti (Spagetti on top, Wonderfil DecoBob bobbins - DecoBob is 80 wt).  The Spagetti was an experiment inspired by my friend,  Phillipa G Quilts, who has used this thread a few times with happy results.  I, too, am happy with the results.  It's a 12 weight thread (very heavy - Glide is 40 weight - the higher the number, the finer the thread).  I thought it would give the Vikings a sort of rustic look - again what I was going for - and I think it works.  The thing I learned about Spagetti, which is a cotton thread, is that it makes a ton of lint!!!  So it's very messy.  I'm used to using poly, which is very clean.  So be aware if you decide to try it - lint will fly!  And you'll need to really clean out your machine after you use it.  Also - I used a large needle size to accommodate the thicker thread.

That's it for my Viking quilt.  Really happy with it.  Not sure what I'll do with it yet.  But it was fun.