Friday, February 17, 2006

Cross-hatch Happy...

There are reasons you'll rarely find a cross-hatched quilt these days. But I felt that I could pull it off with this very old quilt top- for several reasons. For one thing, the owner of this quilt top located it in an old barn. I do believe that a family member pieced it, but I am not sure even she knows who that might have been. She is the sweetest, dearest lady and is not a quilter herself, so she isn't going to sniff and get her nose out of joint when each tiny purple block isn't perfectly dissected. Some people get a little touchy if you were to suggest that their blocks might not be perfectly square- even if you stress to them that it is often the weave of the fabric that causes this. Jeanie just couldn't care less. She gave me this quilt a few months ago, saying, "Oh honey, if you can't get to this for a couple years that's fine by me and you know I won't care a bit if it doesn't turn out nice." It was stained from time- and time in the barn. She had washed it, but there are still some dark spots, but I still think it's charming. The fabrics are linen and satin- the second factor which led me to cross-hatching. There wasn't high contrast between the lilac and the "white" so that in the places where each piece wasn't crossed perfectly, it wasn't going to scream, "I'm a failure!" The linen was very stable, and the satin... well, I worked around it and I think it turned out lovely. I'm not sure where one finds exact same shades of lilac in both satin and linen, but she managed. The white is very close to an Irish linen. The third reason I thought of cross-hatching was because the alternate blocks were such yummy empty spaces... You can't tell from the photo, but each corner square in the alternate blocks are appliqued. And these were no where near square, but we worked with 'em. The entire quilt was hand-pieced, so it made sense to applique the four small squares in each alternate block.

The last reason I choose to cross-hatch,
was that I was feeling particularly ornery and I wanted to. As good a reason as any, I suppose. I love how the quilting adds a completely new deminsion to this quilt- the batting she choose was high loft and while I would have chosen a cotton, the high-loft does look pretty. I like this quilt pattern- I might need to make one, myself. A 15 patch and then those alternate blocks with the little squares in the corners- not appliqued. Ahh... so many quilts, so little time.

9 comments:

Kairle Oaks said...

Your quilting looks great. The cross hatching really seems to fit. Do you have an idea how old this quilt might be?
Kairle

Laurie Ann said...

Nice! I like how the cross-hatching looks with that pattern. The owner will love it!

Laura said...

The quilting looks like it was meant to be. Great job Jeanie will love it!

Cher said...

I think it came out great...and will be so appreciated, both for the lovely quilting and for the fact that it is done!

Quilts And Pieces said...

Well Nina - I know quilters these days can quilt some awfully wonderful patterns, but I happen to just LOVE plain old cross-hatching. It is wonderful! I love it. I think the owner is soooo lucky to have it quilted this way!

Pamela (Peni) Teel said...

Cross hatching must be in my blood...that's how your GM Jessie usually handquilted - either cross hatch or plain diagonal rows.

This is EXTRA nice, Nina! WoW!

Darcie said...

Ornery or not...your cross-hatching is to die for, Nines! Fabulous!

Satin and linen! Who would have ever thought of those two districtly different fibers together? "She" must have been a Maverick! I lift my coffee cup to both "her" and you, Nines!!!

And by the way...you'll be so proud of me...I've "become one" with a mug of tea now and then. I finally learned that I love a black Chai tea, with warmed milk and sugar. And so do my two daughters! It's a fun after-school-sit-down-and-talk treat for the three of us.

Finn said...

You got me laughing Nines..LOL. I've been a hand quilter for so long it took abit for me to realize that long arming doesn't function in QUITE the same way..LOL. Now that I think about it, cross hatching, which is a person favorite(much as Tonya loves her fans) would be approached quite the same way on a big machine. You did marvelously!! It looks authentic to me...*VBS* Great job!!

Isobel said...

I have, or actually, Kathy has a quilt that was quilted by your Grandmother using diagonal lines. I began piecing it for Kathy before she was born and by the time I got those thousand little triangles put together, I was just too fat to quilt it so Mom helped me out. I brought Kathy home from the hospital in that quilt and she brought both of her boys home in the same quilt.

A.Isobel