Spiderwebs on my bed

Bonnie at Quiltville is having a linky party of what's on our beds.

This string spiderweb duvet cover is based on a Quiltville pattern.

I know I've shown it here before, but I love the scrappiness of it

and I thought my newer followers might like seeing it.

You can see the variety of reds in the border, since I used up what I had.

This scrappy 4-patch/16 patch is folded at the foot of the bed

 for extra warmth on cold nights.

Right now, the temperature here is hovering around freezing

so I'm nowhere near not needing a wool comforter covered with spiderwebs

and an extra quilt.

What's on your bed tonight?

The mixed blessings of quilting

Nearly a year ago, my comforter cover fell apart, but I didn't start worrying about it until fall, when I got the comforter out again. In October or so, I started making spiderweb blocks for another comforter cover. Fast forward to yesterday, when I put in buttonholes and sewed on buttons as closures as the final step. It's lovely on my new puffy wool comforter, and I love the mix of colours and the many reds on the border, one of which matches my dust ruffle (which matched the previous comforter too.) But any sane person would have gone to the linen sections of a department store and bought a comforter (or duvet) cover. Not me! Instead I am blessed/cursed with the "I can make that" gene, and while I think it looks stunning, it did take a long time.  click on spiderwebs on the labels below to see the progress of this project. And this is another finish for the No Strings Attached Challenge. Note: Victoria was asking if I lined the top. Indeed I did, using the light cotton ticking left after my wool comforter was cleaned and re-ticked. I thought this was clever of me, since it exactly the size of my comforter, and it covers the raw edges from the spiderwebs.

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An authentic quilt

Here's my completed spiderweb top, with scrappy red borders. I got this together at my retreat last weekend, and I had fun watching people's reactions to it. I  sewed together lots of bits of red to make the borders and they "match" the various reds surrounding the webs. One woman came up and told me that this quilt was authentic because it was made from scraps and it had a different feel than the quilts made from yardage. That was a great compliment, and I told her that. I used up miles of strings in this project, lots of reds in various shades, and the only "new" fabric was the background neutrals. I'm happy with how it looks, but there are lots of bulky seams at the intersections. I need to cut the backing to size and then it will cover my newly-reticked comforter and keep me warm on these frosty winter nights.

Thanks for all your comments and entries on my giveaway post, one below this. You still have time to leave a comment to win a needlecase or tea cozy since I'll draw a name on Monday, Feb. 8.

Also, my three recent little quilts are up for sale at the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative right now under the quilts for sale button -- quilts # 4751, 4752 and 4753,

I've been caught in the web!

I'm up to 21 scrappy spiderweb blocks, hoping for 36 to make a comforter cover measuring 82 by 84. Since these finish at slightly under 12 inches, that means I'll put a border around the blocks. As you can see, I'm using a variety of 1.5 inch red strips and three different neutrals for the foundation. These are fun because they are mindless but I'm amazed how many strings remain in my scrap box. When this is done, I'm going to enjoy lazing in bed under my newly-washed and re-ticked wool comforter and looking at the history of my quilt-making over the last five years with all these yummy (and some not so great) fabrics. I'm using Bonnie's method but sewing directly on the background, since this will not be quilted and the extra layer of fabric won't matter.

I was a winner at Jill at Quilt Rat's  postcard giveaway. She does beautiful machine quilting and she made the fabric for the exclamation mark by transferring her doodled design onto fabric with her printer, then colouring it with coloured pencils and fabric paints. Thanks so much for the inspiration and lovely postcard.

The web widens

These spiderweb blocks are growing on my design wall. I need to make a new comforter cover, and I wanted to string piece on foundations instead of paper so I didn't have to pick out all the paper bits. These spiderweb blocks are an adaptation from Bonnie Hunter's pattern, and are pieced directely on the neutral foundation. I'm using various shades of red in the stips, but they're all the same size. I'm also using several neutrals, since I bought several metres in different colours this summer and I don't want to buy anything new for a string quilt.

I used a few selvages as well as many, many strips and bits from my scraps and strings box. Below is one where I've used selvages with the pattern printed right to the edge. I have lots of selvages like that, but it is a bit tedious to make the spiderwebs that way, since I have to sew on lots of strips.

Although the end product is neat, the process isn't.  My sewing table has lots of little bits on it, and so does the floor. Hey, the creative process is often messy and so is working with strings. My garbage can is also full of little bits -- I'm proud to say I'm discarding all the tiny off-cuts without any pangs of conscience. When life gives you scraps, make a quilt, but when you're making a scrap quilt, you can throw out the scraps of scraps.