swachter6d ago

I bought this amazing quilt at Cambridge Antiques Market. I want to make a quilt coat but I Feel Bad about cutting up someone’s work (yes I know this is complicated). This, however, is the perfect amount of fucky for me to feel like this is collaboration and completion - the person hand stitched the binding (!) but then only hand-sewed one set of cherry leaves before giving up entirely, and the rest are just stuck on (barely, in many places). So it’s just undone enough for me to not feel guilty about transforming it.

#quilting #handmade #sewing #reuse #MakeDoAndMend

Show threadswachter

“This will be a quick little project” I think as I look at all the quilting and appliqué that needed to be finished.

“I can totally bang this out in a day or two” as I seam rip off the binding

“Ok four days max” as I yank out the polyester batting

“A week at the outside” as I realize that the quilt top is a stretchy folded bubbly situation and none of the squares are square. “I can fix it” as I disassemble it completely into squares and strips of sashing.

“Yes extremely fun choices fast project good serotonin” as I trim all the squares to the same size and trim down the sashing.

#cherryChoreCoat #quilting #sewing

Mar 26 at 2:49amWeb
Show threadswachter1d ago

I did lay out the pattern pieces on the quilt top and now having completely disassembled it, I can put it back together in a way that gives me more usable shapes for the sewing pattern. Instead of being a fat square, I can make kind of a long thick strip with the cherry blocks oriented on the diagonal and use the former borders on the bottom to bulk our the yardage.

#cherryChoreCoat #sewing #quilting

Show threadswachter15h ago

OK, the day started with a stack of *actually* square blocks and trimmed borders. I reassembled the blocks into one long strip and added the border to the “top” edge before I got hung up on the geometry of whether I could cut the blocks with two blocks to the vertical or three. I need 90 linear inches to cut the back, two fronts, and two sleeves and I’m like 85% sure I can do it with two vertical blocks. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow. I will definitely need to use the old borders at the top and bottom of the strip to get enough vertical height for the pattern pieces.

I’ll need to recut the existing backing to fit the new shape, but I’m waiting on that until after the front is done in case I need to do some more clever piracy to get enough either length or width. In extremity, I do have some other random cherry yardage that could be tapped in for this project. I am nothing if not aesthetically consistent.

#cherryChoreCoat #handmade #sewing #quilting

Show threadswachter2h ago

Omfg I actually did do the math right holy shit

#cherryChoreCoat #handmade #sewing #quilting

Show threadInarticulateQuilter1d ago
@swachter you are going so far above and beyond to save this quilt/coat 🥹
Show threadrjohnsonmn ❌👑1d ago
@swachter You are saving it by making it right! The thing that would bug me forever is the one set of cherries that hangs the opposite way 😬
Show threadswachter1d ago
@rjohnsonmn oh my god there are so many other things wrong with the tension that I didn’t even notice 😂😅
Show threadMadame Bescuit1d ago
@swachter
i admire your patience. (I would have burned it or, most probably, hidden it in a 'do this later' box 😆) The result is worth it though, looks amazing !
Show threadRayendal1d ago
@swachter You're my hero. :)