Unstructured
After spending July fussing over details and intricacies and sheer frippery in my knitting, I came home from New York wanting a project that wouldn’t require a lick of forethought, measuring, or planning… an avenue for my fingers to take over and let the piece just form itself with very little input from my brain. I wanted to freewheel for a little while. And I had just the thing in my suitcase.
I bought no yarn while I was Back East, but I did nip into Purl Patchwork. Ostensibly I was there to grab a wee giftie for my mother-in-law in thanks for puppy care while we were out of town, but naturally I couldn’t resist a little birthday present to myself. (How often does a girl turn 30, after all? You can still think of yourself as a girl after you’re 30, right?) I spent a long while sorting through all the tidy little fat quarter bundles looking for colors that reminded me of Alice, and along the way I set aside about five of them that were calling my name. They were all similar: quiet neutrals with just a shot of something brighter. I finally picked a favorite, and my heart was already hanging out a seductive vision of what it would become: a simple log cabin baby blanket with brights from my scrap bag for the “hearths.” With a hot and sticky weekend to myself when I arrived home, I quickly set to work.
I didn’t measure. I cut with scissors, willy-nilly, and didn’t even try very hard to make my strips straight. I cut each one plumper or skinnier on whim. If the squares came out a little cock-eyed, I smiled. And soon I had six. They were more or less equal in size; I added a little extra strip to a couple of them when I realized their neighbors would easily square up to 12″. Then I did pull out the rotary cutter to true them up. A nice woman at Bolt helped me find the perfect sashing, and two more evenings of sewing brought me here:
A quilt top! I just need to procure some flannel for the batting (I want this to be a very lightweight quilt, good for summer, easy to fold up and pack anywhere) and I’ll be ready to make the sandwich. It’s small enough I think I may be able to do some simple machine quilting myself. I’m thinking of eight-point stars radiating from the “hearths” out to the edges of the squares, and if you’ve got suggestions for the borders I’d like to hear them. My trusty little Husqvarna Emerald (she’s called Signy) doesn’t have any special features for quilting, but I don’t see any reason she can’t stitch some basic shapes through three layers of fabric.
The overall result isn’t nearly so quiet as I imagined it would be when I looked at that tidy little stack of beigey fabrics. It has gumption and unexpected vigor. Because I like to name things, I’m calling this quilt Satsuki, after the elder girl in Hayao Miyazaki’s “My Neighbor Totoro,” which remains near the top of my list of favorite movies. I don’t speak Japanese and don’t like to trust the Internet for these things, but what I’ve found is that Satsuki is a traditional name for the month of May and means (depending how you write it) something like “blooming moon” or “happiness/rare/hope.” I like that. I want all that for the baby this quilt will warm.
Posted: August 11th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
O WOW! 30?!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
That quilt is beautiful. I can’t believe how easy you make it sound.
Have you seen the Japanese movie “Wool 100%?” It’s awesome. The title may be “100% Wool,” I’m not sure.
Posted: August 12th, 2009 at 3:57 am
Happy Birthday!
Is this your way of saying there is to be a Baby Garter?
Posted: August 12th, 2009 at 5:46 am
Happy Birthday!!!!! I’m going to 39 in September and I still see myself as a girl.
And that movie Wool 100% is interesting and very different!!!!! Worth a watch.
Posted: August 12th, 2009 at 6:49 am
Hmmm… What baby might that be?
Posted: August 12th, 2009 at 8:06 am
Oh wow, I made you guys suspicious, eh? Let the record show that a number of babies are due to arrive among friends and family before there’ll ever be a Baby Garter to knit or quilt for. I’m not sure which baby will receive this quilt… depends when it’s finished. If I slack off on the quilting and binding long enough, I suppose it could be for a child of my own, but I’d really like to see this project through more quickly than that!
Confession, though: there’s a toddler-size sweater (okay, it has no sleeves yet, so right now it’s more of a poncho) I couldn’t bear not to save for a daughter of my own hidden away in the closet. It’s been there for four years.
Posted: August 12th, 2009 at 8:26 am
How precious! My almost 3-year-old just last night spent her first night out of the crib and in her toddler bad. It made me so sad to see no hand knit/quilted blanket over her for the occasion. This is definitely inspiration.
Posted: August 12th, 2009 at 8:26 am
bed*
Posted: August 12th, 2009 at 9:35 am
How wonderful. Must look through my fat quarters with inspiration in mind! Happy Birthday by the way and yes you can still think of yourself as a girl after age 30. I tell my daughters that I am only growing younger with each year and am determined to live long enough to be a problem to them.
Posted: August 12th, 2009 at 11:24 am
What a wonderful project. I’ve never really thought of quilting as something you can do free-form. I guess you can!
Posted: August 12th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I love the idea of just making squares and then cutting them to the right size. It kind of nips some of the anxiety of cutting and sewing right out of the way for me.
I love sewn items, but I always feel nervous about sewing because of the speed of the machine (though mine is slow) and worrying that I will mess up the fabric. In its way knitting is much more forgiving.
Posted: August 12th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Happy Birthday!
Posted: August 12th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
simply gorgeous. and i more than love willy nilly.
Posted: August 17th, 2009 at 11:49 am
happy birthday! it’s a darling bithday quilt.
Posted: September 30th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
I’m so afraid of machine quilting my quilt that all of the pieces have been sitting in my sewing room since December 2008! Do you have a walking foot? It just scared the heck out of me. Any tips?