I finished my Checkerboard quilt on Thursday night and will be sending it off to its new home on Tuesday.
When I started making this quilt, I had something softer in mind. But it didn’t want to be soft. It wanted the bold colors and small patterns. I don’t listen to jazz often, but making this quilt made me want to listen to Miles Davis.
That happened once before when I was making a quilt. That time it was Lou Reed, and I haven’t listened to his music since.
Most of the time when I’m designing a quilt I can’t listen to music. It gets in the way of knowing what the quilt wants. Like I can’t hear what it’s telling me to do next.
Much of the patterned fabric in this quilt look to me like they’re from the 1970’s. They were so new to my stash I didn’t even get a chance to put them on my shelves before using them. A lot of the solid colors are old scrubs.
I used a sheet for the back along with the flowered piece of fabric that had the date 1974 printed on it. I tacked the quilt with blue yarn. But I don’t think I’ll be using that yarn again. It was thick and hard to pull through the two layers of fabric and batting.
I’m glad I used it for this quilt though. It’s hardly visible on the front and looks just right on the green backing.
