Monday, May 4, 2020

Unmatched


I warned you when I finished Skirted a few weeks ago that I had another piece of clothing in my stash to repurpose, and I figured no time like the present. So next up was a pair of light green fine-wale corduroy pants. I didn't realize till I'd cut them out of their waistband, zipper, and hems how hard it would be to match the color to absolutely anything in my stash!


It was seriously difficult and I about gave up after going through all of my quilting cottons. Then, down on the bottom shelf where I stash my cross-weaves, I found a decent length of a multi-color stripe that was, just maybe, a possibility. It was Exotic Stripe Parma by Kaffe Fassett, and while not actually a match, it looked good with the green. I dug some more and found more cross-weaves to add to the mix. The largest piece was another Kaffe in terracotta, which I think I actually purchased to go with the stripe.


The quilt's design was inspired by a Josef Albers work, and I built it from the bottom up on my design wall. Many of the components were strongly dictated by the amount of fabric in my pull, which of course, was part of the fun.


The backing was pieced using the few remaining bits paired with two Denyse Schmidt prints that mixed in surprisingly well. For quilting, I totally wanted to replicate the "cross-weave" effect by quilting a grid, but unfortunately my two chosen threads, Aurifil 50wt #2155 [Cinnamon] and #2350 [Copper], though perfect for the quilt, were too similar, and the effect I was after doesn't really show up too well, but of course I know it's there.



I'd saved some of the terracotta for the binding, and I gotta say, I think it's perfect. The finish is a bit of an unusual shape for my quilts, but it just seemed to want to be that way. At 30" x 52", it was quite manageable size-wise, which just added to the fun. And one of my favorite parts? How those vertical stripes don't match. Don't know what it is, but I love that.

10 comments:

  1. Fabulous work! I like the back too.
    Josef Albers is seriously inspiring.
    Congratulations.

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  2. Seeing it here, I feel like it has a very tectonic feel to it as well. I think the layers and shifts in the background stripes add a lot of interest and play nicely with the piecing. I'm glad you found fabrics to match in your stash!

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  3. so inspiring! if you keep cutting up your clothes, you'll have to buy a whole new wardrobe when this virus lifts. just sayin....

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  4. It's always fun and educational to hear about how your projects come about and the decisions you make along the way. The shifts in the stripes make it so dynamic.

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  5. I love what you made with those pants! The fabrics match well.

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  6. Another very cool piece! I was inspired by Skirted and created Dressed for the Q.3 challenge of Project QUILTING Quarantine Edition. The prompt was Vintage and after seeing your quilt, I remember a 20 year old dress that happened to STILL be in my closet. Thank you!!

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  7. REally cool. It`s a good purpose for my very old KF stripes to combine them with something unusual! Thanks for the creative brainstorming and regards from Germany

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  8. I love this! And thanks for the Joseph Albers link - I'm going to check out that iPad app.

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