Forensic Quilting

I've already confessed I'm a fabric junkie, well established since I used to beg to go to the Hathaway Shirt Factory in Ontario to get scraps. I had big dreams to start quilting, from age 12 on. I remember my beloved cousin Lou Ann asking me to make her a quilt, and I was overwhelmed. She told me not to worry - she'd give me 20 years to complete it. That sounded like forever. It was 28 years ago. Still no quilt.

I've done a couple of pillow covers, baby quilts, a sampler with a class. I just get overwhelmed by opening up a pattern book and it says "Cut out 844 of pattern A, 1688 of pattern B, etc." The best book I ever got was called Quilting for the Careless. Let's face it - I have 10 minutes to do a little something, not a long weekend with only my sewing machine for company.

I started a simple scrap quilt 5 years ago. I do a bit, here and there, now and then. Now the term "scrap quilt" would lead one to believe that I would make do with the oodles of fabric I've accumulated. But no - I've been buying a juicy fat quarter here, a scrumptious yard or two there. And just to confirm I am in fact insane, I am doing it all - cutting, piecing, and quilting - by hand.

After having spent so much time with the hypothetical quilt already, and considering myself lucky if I complete it before my death - I am simply incapable of imagining giving it away. Call me selfish. I just don't have that generous of a spirit.

So imagine my consternation at the Textile Center sale, finding several mostly done quilts and such. The care and cost of picking out fabric, choosing a design, cutting out a zillion pieces, and machine-piecing about a half of them, and then simply walking away??? I don't get it. But I'll pick up wherever they left off...

Hence forensic quilting, because although the ziploc baggies are full of fabric and pieces and borders, there is no road map or pattern. I laid out the (supposedly) twin size quilt on the dining room table the other day, and was lucky to have a spatially-gifted friend over to help me put it all together. At least in theory. Here's the pictures.



I think this is the keeper:












I didn't like how the big squares arranged here, so this is a design we discarded:

Back into the pile:

Let's be realistic - I have a new sewing machine and more of a learning cliff than I feel comfortable with. And I'm operating in the dark without a clue. So even halfway started, this is going to take me a while. But I feel fortunate to pick up where someone left off, even if I don't understand it.