Patchwork

At the tender age of 17, I decided, after watching An American Quilt, that I totally needed to make one.  I can also remember my Nana Dorothy working on patches for a quilt she made for charity, which I thought was amazing at the age of 7.  I'm terrible for starting crafty projects and then abandoning them for ten years, as evidenced by this particular as-yet-still-non-existent-quilt.  However, I made my resolutions that 2011 was going to be a year of completeness, which is why I dug out all the scraps of material that I've been carefully gathering over the years, old clothes or material offcuts, and actually started to make patches. 

Since Christmas, I've attempted this project with a number of different approaches; the first was freehand - disaster. Ended up with wonky squares that didn't match up correctly and despite coming across as totally carefree, bohemian and somewhat haphazard, I love neatness in everything other than the state of my bedroom and desk. 

I decided to try using card tesserae (templates that you stitch your fabric around in order to maintain straight lines), but it was too fiddly to tack the fabric without taking the thread through the card, which was hard going on my fingers and needle. So, third time lucky, I tacked the fabric to cut out sections of paper. I recycled old bills and envelopes, because it turns out, that's about the right thickness.

Here are the patches I've made so far. It's quite fun to do it in my spare time, like when I'm sat by myself on the Tube. I have a LONG way to go yet, but it feels dreadfully satisfying to see the squares looking all neat.  

I know that it's impatient because I haven't got all of my squares ready yet so I can't plan the design, but I've stitched a couple of squares together, just to see what it's going to look like...