What I Did At School Today

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Finito

December 28, 2007

Yep, I finished the quilt for my mom. And I even sent it in enough time to get there BEFORE Christmas. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and she says that she loves it.

This is the best photo I got of the whole thing, and it's sideways! But you get the idea. The top is pieced entirely of corduroy. The back is tea-dyed flannel. It's plenty big to fit a twin size bed at 61 by 82.

When I dyed the back I used an old canner I have for dying fabric. I left the rack in the bottom of the canner to prevent scorching. I layered the fabric (about 7 yards of unbleached cotton flannel) with 16 tea bags by placing a yard or two of fabric in, then adding three or four tea bags, then squishing another yard or two of fabric on top. I continued the layers until all the tea bags and fabric were in the pot. I added enough hot tap water to cover the fabric and placed it on the stove over high heat just to bring it to a boil. There was not enough room in the pot for stirring, which was ok; I wanted the tea bags to stay put to create darker places in the fabric. Instead of stirring, I would occasionally use a wooden spoon to poke the fabric back into the tea. I left it simmering on the stove covered for several hours, then I turned it up to boil again with the idea that I would boil off much of the water. It got late, I got tired, so I simply turned it off and left it soaking until morning. I rinsed the fabric with cold water and ran it through a vinegar rinse in the washing machine. Finally, I washed it on cold with a little soap. It has really nice, subtle variations that even with sunlight didn't photograph well.

The quilting didn't photo well either, but is long wavy lines that run diagonal from upper left to lower right. I'll leave you with one more photo and some bits of information.

We got about 2 more inches of snow last night. That means we have somewhere between 3 and 4 inches on the ground at our house right now. The little guy really likes to shovel with hubby. I hear that he's not much help, but he is only 17 months old.

And my computer is sick. I imagine that I will continue to post once or twice while it is away, but without many (or any?) photos. It will be mailed of to the Mac hospital soon. There's apparently something wrong with the power inverter for the LCD screen. It goes black unexpectedly and flickers incessantly while I'm working. It's reaching the "I can't work" point as black seems to quickly be becoming the preferred state. All of this means that the promised quilt binding tutorial will have to wait until my little white notebook is once again all better and back home. Oh, and I've put all the back up files back on it.

So, posts will be picture free for the next couple of weeks.

The quilt is beautiful. Your mom will be cozy and warm under it. I am sure she is very happy with the love that it was made with. :-)