In my last blog you could read about the start of my Travelers Blanket adventure. I practiced on the scarf, but it kept itching in my head…
So, about 8 months ago I started making a Travelers Blanket.
In this blog I will tell a little bit about the process of making it -maybe I can inspire you to make one too!
The pictures tell a lot: I started by taking an old cover for my bed and tore it apart. With rubber bands all over the place I painted it purple in the machine. The result was not really what I wanted:
So I repeated the whole procedure with denimblue! That made me happy…
I took my scraps; I clipped little circles from Kaffe Fasset Collective scraps and batiks, collected suitable embroidery yarn, (I bought some… OK, a lot, more yarn along the way!) and started the raw edge appliqué embroidering!
Every round piece that showed up after painting told me what piece of fabric it needed; every piece of fabric told me how to embroider it.. Look at some examples:
I also added a “lifeline” from an old but very, very beloved t-shirt that I wore off to thread before my gastric bypass. In this way it tells its own story…
When all the circles were filled with fabric and embroidery I could start backing it. Thank goodness we have a big livingroom where I could glue all three layers with painterstape to the floor. On my knees!
It took a few hours, sore fingers and sore knees, PLUS some fabulous music on a handmade cd full of jazz and blues to double it completely.
You can see by the white lines that I am definitely NOT a straight thinker! Look at that backing! Is it perfect or WHAT!
And right away I started quilting it…
How I love this whole proces. Hope you don’t mind my socks 🙂
I am still busy with the quilting. As always I can hardly believe how handquilting adds in beauty! When its finished I hope I can find a show somewhere to send it to.
AND I hope I inspired you enough to go on a journey off your own with a Travelers Blanket! (it doesn’t have to be this big… try a handkerchief 🙂 )
If you want more information about it you can look at the book “Plaids Nomads” by Dijanne Cevaal.
Please, let me know if you start your own will you? I am sort of curious, aka nosy 🙂
Love, Hilda
This just looks amazing …. and has put yet another idea into my head!!! Love the effect that double dying has given it. Just been sorting out all my linen and may just repurpose an old sheet to try something similar. Thanks for the inspiration.
sorry for the late response! I didn’t know it was published…
Thank you for your nice reaction; it makes me happy to inspire!