big zig?
so i have been pouring over the denyse schmidt book, in awe of her wonderful ideas. i know i have blogged about this in the past, but i am going to do it again. waaay back, almost five years ago, i ordered some fabric to make a quilt or something for soon to be born eliot. some awesome outerspace, rockety stuff from reprodepot. and still it sits and moves all over the house. sometimes it is in the closet, sometimes it is in the basement, sometimes i cant find it for a few months. last spring i dug the rocket fabric back out in a fit of productivity and went to the fabric store to buy some accent fabrics. by golly, i was going to get crackin. i was feeling especially guilty since i had recently purchased fabric for a quilt for collette, thats right, another kid and another pile of fabric for all these quilts i am going to make. sometimes i think i am delusional. anyway, so eliot has informed me that he wants his birthday party to be all about outerspace (it is at the end of january). perfect time to make the quilt for him as a present at his outerspace party. i had always envisioned a pretty simple block quilt, but now that i am armed with this new book, things are changing. the "big zig" quilt has caught my eye, and seems to be something a beginner could tackle. ok, here are the photos, and bring on the advice and opinions.
here is dsq quilt. so lovely... i think that i could use my rocket fabric for the large brown expanses and the two solids i already have for the zigs.
the rockets (photos are sucky because i took them in my basement last night). and the accent fabric i bought a while back, which now i think might not be 100% cotton, but i still like the colors.
let me be clear, i have never made a quilt before. one "quilted" baby blanket and that is it. i am i crazy? can this be done? should i flip the fabrics and just have rockets in the zigs? the dsq quilts look so nice with their solid colors, but maybe too simple for a kids room? i dont know. thoughts please!
here is dsq quilt. so lovely... i think that i could use my rocket fabric for the large brown expanses and the two solids i already have for the zigs.
the rockets (photos are sucky because i took them in my basement last night). and the accent fabric i bought a while back, which now i think might not be 100% cotton, but i still like the colors.
let me be clear, i have never made a quilt before. one "quilted" baby blanket and that is it. i am i crazy? can this be done? should i flip the fabrics and just have rockets in the zigs? the dsq quilts look so nice with their solid colors, but maybe too simple for a kids room? i dont know. thoughts please!
posted by hannah at 11/16/2005 07:42:00 AM
9 comments
9 Comments:
get yourself a walking foot & you'll be in business! i like the idea of the bigger portion to be the rockety stuff. hard to know if you could recognize what it is if it was just the zigs. but then again simplicity is great... i guess i'm not much help. it will be awesome though.
are you machine quilting this? that can be a challenge if you don't have a quilting machine (the sheer size of the piece can be a challenge with a regular machine). that said, i think your idea for using the rockets fabric for the majority of it and the two others for the zig zags is excellent. BTW-i don't have a quilting machine, so i only make small stuff. i can't wait to see your progress!!
What a perfect opportunity to make this quilt! I bet Eliot will appreciate it a lot more now than he would have as a baby. I love your fabrics and think the rocket would look great as the "field" for the zig-zigs; you might just want to check that the horizontal seam below the zig-zag bands is not too obvious (it might be if the rocket is a large scale print). I love to hear about works in progress--can't wait to see this quilt!
Go for it! I like the idea of the rocket fabric for the majority of the quilt too. And the rocket fabric would be more forgiving than a solid fabric for the quilting as the print would distract from any mistakes.
I know it will be amazing!
PS Have you ever looked into having a pieced top long arm quilted? I just heard about this and I have no idea how much it costs but I'm really intrigued by the idea.
can you boom zig at all?
take off every zig. i was waiting for that.
I love the rocket fabric! Like everyone else is saying, I think it would make a great choice for the large expanses. But Anamaria is right about the horizontal seam below the zigzags, I suspect it might be too obvious. If it is, what about applique-ing the zigzags onto the top of the solid rectangle?
If you decide to quilt it yourself, you might try just straight quilting lines rather than the zigzags. You could make them perpendicular to each other (like graph paper), or at angles. At least you wouldn't have to keep stopping in the middles of lines and changing directions.
Or you might want to check into how much it would cost to have someone else machine quilt something for you. In my area, it would be about the same or less than the cost of a walking foot (so $60-100), and would be much less aggravating than constantly rolling and unrolling the extra fabric, trying to stuff it through your machine.
could you post where you bought the rocket fab.?
sure! i got it a long time ago, like six and a half years ago. obviously i havent been too motivated since then, but i got it online at www.reprodepot.com they have great fabrics, and while they might not have that fabric, you should still check them out.
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