cloth: mending and quilting

I so enjoyed my 2-dimensional design class that I was entertaining visions of getting a degree in studio art and maybe even transferring to a school for an M.F.A. I get grandiose dreams like that which is why I’ve boxes and boxes of fabrics. I decided that the stash has to go, and this is the summer to sew like a motherfucker. This week, I mended an oven mitt.    

I am also hand stitching a throw I call Liberty because all the cotton lawns in it are from Liberty of London. I sewed from a pattern called Prism at Purl Soho. When my variety of lawns had arrived, I was kind of angry at the selection that Purl Soho had sent as I thought some of the patterns were kind of lame. The one on the left of nursery animals and the contemporary ones of stars and paisleys were not my favorites like the florals.  

However, when I viewed the fabric all together in the quilt, it's not too bad. I kinda even like it. 

And so I'm bringing it to the sewing sweatshop at school. I think I’ve a lot of ivory cotton enough for binding and may even finish Liberty this weekend.
 

At my sewing sweatshop (aka my library workplace that has large enough tables to spread out quilts and cutting mat), I’m quilting too a baby/twin sized blanket on my domestic, named Modern Crosses. I spent at least 4 hours on a Friday afternoon wrestling a heavy blanket and stitching in the ditch.

 

I flipped over the quilt to see how much of a grid I had sewn. Oh no! There was not nearly enough stitching. 

I thought I had stitched a lot in the hours I was at the sewing sweatshop, but I see that I have many more blocks of crosses to outline. However, I’m also discovering how much I like the creative output of quilting and am no longer regretting that I dropped the art classes this summer.