Hawk Studios

Stardate 2016.62.1

With Others in Mind

We make quilts for a lot of different reasons:  To exercise the creative light inside, to provide warmth and comfort for ourselves and others, to provide hope to those experiencing desperate times, to satisfy our insatiable need to play with color, patterns, and textures, and to memorialize a soul who has passed to another world.  No matter your reason, quilting is a love to share with those you know and those you’ve yet to meet.  

Whenever I decide to make a quilt for someone else – you know, to give as a gift or give as part of a community charity, I try to think of the person I’m making the quilt for.  Maybe that’s just putting too much time and effort into the thought process, but for me, if I’m able to picture the person in the creative landscape of the quilt I’m making, the whole process feels more personal and thoughtful.  Plus, knowing I have someone in mind for the quilt helps me to fuse different little aspects into the quilt that will hopefully speak to them and they’ll enjoy the quilt just that much more.

About two-thirds done and pieced together...just a bit more to go now...

Enter the current pink and chocolate quilt I’m working on for my husband’s cousin who will be getting married later this year.  Luckily, I had a bit of lead time, so I’m pretty confident I’ll get the quilt finished in time for the wedding. I started all the cutting for the quilt last year (2015) and am now finally at a spot where I can provide a sneak peek at the quilt.  The couple strikes me as the romantic type – especially as their engagement story involves the beach, a helicopter, and many strangers helping him spell out “Will You Marry Me” on the beach so she could see the proposal from the helicopter ride.  What a story they tell.  They’re also rooted in family and enjoying and appreciating family possessions of the past, all the while adding a new spin to their own lives.  Plus, he’s an aviation mechanic, so there’s an interesting component to incorporate into a quilt…

On the design board, waiting to be sewn together...

In keeping all that in mind, I thought pink and chocolate just seem to evoke the air of romance and I had several fabrics in my stash that I thought would work well.  I gathered up a more traditional pattern which I also had from making a previous quilt, and here’s where I am now…

The pattern is from Bonnie Blue Quilts, called “Glory Bound”.  I’ve seen the pattern made in more traditional/vintage fabric, and also seen it done in solids for a more modern take. Both colorways make a nice quilt… 

I have four more rows to stitch together, then I can finish the rest of the quilt top. 

Stitching on the rows.  It's the more dull part of making a quilt top for me, and I work to plow through all the matching of points and seams, and get excited about the progress I'm making.

Now, I know the quilt isn’t solid pink and chocolate; for some reason, most likely for the unexpected element, I brought in some baby blue pieces.  I thought that would give the quilt some interest and would eventually help me tie in the quilt backing to the front.

Remember, I said he is an aviation mechanic?  Well, I happened upon this great aviator blueprint fabric that I thought would appeal to him and so, I thought the splash of blue on the front would help tie in the blue backing I was intending to use.  This is “Aircraft in Indigo” by Savannah Lockie for Robert Kaufman.  The collection is called, “Vintage Blueprints”.

This is the backing fabric for the quilt.  I think it'll appeal to the aviator ...

I still need to find a border fabric for the quilt, but while I hunt for that, I keep plugging away on getting all the HST’s sewn into rows.  That part gets monotonous for me, so I can only do it in spurts.  I’m hoping that spurt will come along soon so I can move this one to the quilting machine and start in on piecing another quilt…hopefully that challenge quilt that I’ve been rolling around in my head…

Linking Up this week with Sew Fresh Quilts...