Annie’s Musings

Wonky Quilt

Literally!

I don't know how the "Monk" in me allowed me to make this quilt.  I'll explain how it came about, but I first must post this

WARNING:

What follows may horrify quilters everywhere.

As you read, please keep in mind that I never pay attention to quilting "rules"...never.  Sometimes they make sense, but, mostly not.  I think most "rules" were created prior to the creation of the walking foot.

First of all I needed to make one more "whole cloth" quilt.  And I fell in love with these fabrics. 

I love the colors, the wonky flower blocks and the plaid stripe.  It will be horrifying to some to learn that I found these fabrics at JoAnn's.  They aren't a bad quality but they are printed wonky.  This I didn't see until I set out to cut the top to size.  This was so disappointing.  

Eventually I wondered if I cut the design straight if it would show that the quilt would not be "squared".  Horrifying that I would even consider cutting a quilt out of square, isn't it?!  It's an optical illusion.  The eye is fooled.  Well,  my eye is fooled.

These fabrics are on the narrow side, so my next decision was to not cut off the selvages...more horrification!  They are actually nice and flat.  They don't pull inward on the edges.  And being wacky as I am,  I hoped they would add some curiosity to the quilt.

But now the back.  I hoped with the stripe going up and down that the eye would continue to be fooled.  Nope!  With it being a plaid stripe with lines going vertical and horizontal, it was obvious that I cut the ends at an angle to match the top piece.  Even more disappointment!

And then my boundless determination set in.  I wondered if I could save this quilt by creating an optical illusion on the back to once again fool the eye.  Now I find myself working on the quilt from hell.  And wondering about myself, why do I have to be this way?!!!

The quilt back was about 1/2 an inch narrower than the top.  Why not!  Why should coordinating fabrics be the same width?!  So, a strip of wonky flower blocks was added to extend the width. 

 Now the tricky part.  I stitched flower blocks at various levels along the top and bottom so the eye can't easily follow the stripe/plaid lines, therefore not easily noticing the wonky angle.

I think it worked.  So I sandwiched it and started quilting it.  I'm sure it's horrifying but I started at a bottom corner and worked my way across and up the quilt.  And horror of horrors, I also did not leave much for extra batting or backing behind the front for quilting.  I have found that nothing really moves that much during quilting, so I've stopped wasting so much batting and backing fabric for the quilting stage.

I bound it with the plaid stripe backing fabric.

This is only quilt #5 for me.  Probably because of all the challenges presented by this fabric that I feel I conquered, this is actually my favorite quilt so far.  It's a small lap quilt measuring 42" X 64" but just right for lying around watching TV.  And I am horrifyingly thrilled with it's conniving bit of wonkyness.

I had some wonky flower blocks left over and a chunk of the plaid stripe, so I made this small quiltie.  Now here's the real shocker for me...

...if I made that lap quilt for you, do you think your little doggie would like the quiltie?  Yep, I made her little doggie a matching little quiltie.  I cannot believe I did that!  Really, I cannot believe a made a quilt for a dog!

Well, there you have it...proof that miracles never cease to happen!

Annie