Sunday, October 23, 2011

Lotto inspired

A couple of years ago my partner's great-aunt died.  Chris was close to her as a child and he remembered fondly the bright floral print polyester blouses she always wore.  When he helped his mother clean out his aunt's home, he asked if he could keep the blouses.  So he brought home this pile of shiny floral polyester blouses and asked me to make something out of them.  I thought he was nuts at the time and I put the clothes in a bag and tossed it in a closet.  
I'm fairly new to quilting and didn't think it would be possible to cut and sew together that slick, shiny, slightly stretchy fabric.  But then in February we did string hearts as the block of the month for the BlockLotto.  And I had a EUREKA! moment.  I made string blocks from the blouses on muslin squares.  Then I made stacks similar to the squares we made in January and was pleasantly surprised with the results. These are definitely colors and patterns I'd never have chosen on my own.  And when I first looked at the pile of clothes I didn't really see that they connected well.  However, as I constructed what I was afraid would be a polyester monstrosity, I saw them all come together.  Now when I see Chris or his dad look at the quilt I can see a sort of faraway look come over them and I know they are thinking of Auntie.


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