Tuesday, February 04, 2025

Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine



I ran across this magenta and green fabric, and the color combination was just so pugnacious that it stayed in my mind.  The problem was that I found it at a quilt show, and since I'm there for two full days, it was just too easy to go and get it.  And then a couple more in the line.  And a couple more.  In the end, I had the whole line of two different colorways, and a good start on a third.

At first, I started designing something more or less normal:  flowers, grass, sky, etc.  It probably would have ended up that way if I hadn't found a quilt online (which I can no longer find, grrr.) that was kind of an offset cross.  It fit the personality of this fabric, so I changed directions.  And then I had a great idea.

I have a friend who does all my quilting because I, frankly, it would be too frustrating for me to spend the time to be good at it, so I pay her to quilt all my quilts.  (Except baby quilts and community service quilts.  I can do passable curlicues with hearts, stars, or flowers. Even butterflies!  Dragonflies, once, but I think they had mutant genes.  I can also crosshatch.)  She keeps taking classes to get better, doing some really cool stuff.

My great idea:  Make a quilt with lots of white space for her to have fun with!!

I designed an off-center cross with 12-inch, 8-inch, 6-inch, and 4-inch blocks.  I got out the graph paper so I plot out where each block would go. I made each white space a different size, so my friend couldn't duplicate anything. (Aren't I a great friend?)

I finished it at the guild retreat, because there would be a design wall.  (I only have a design coffee table and a design hide-a-bed.)  There was lots of conversation about this quilt (we always comment on everyones' quilts) including the title.  I finally decided it had to be a 60's song with the word green and came up with Simon and Garfunkel's "Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine," a 1965 song commenting on escapism.  (It was a good time to escape from.)



I had a lot of fun finishing up all the blocks, putting the fabrics in where they wanted to go, and fussy cutting when the fabric told me.  (Don't ask me how it talks to me.  It was the fourth day of a 6-day quilt retreat.  Things get a little...interesting.)  Like I said, I meticulously counted the number of different sized blocks.  It was easy for the 12-inch blocks (3).  The 8-inch and 6-inch blocks kept trying to tell me what size they weren't.  But the 4-inch blocks were downright deceptive.  I made 2 extra.

Then I cut the large white pieces.  I had figured that the 2-yard piece of fabric I had would be enough, but I was wrong.   Now I would have to piece the smallest one, in the lower left.  Ha!  I put the 2 extra scoundrelly blocks there!   And then I cut the white piece too small...which is why there is a little short piece of green there.  I added 2 more pieces of green in the upper left to make it look like I had planned it all along.



I gave it to my friend and said, "have fun!"

And here is what she did:





You can find her on facebook as "Miss Daisy Quilting."









posted by Marion @ 8:40 PM 0 comments