
I read about a contest and actually had an idea for a submission. I don’t remember anything more about the contest. I think the deadline is in January so I have plenty of time to find the piece of paper with the information on it. This blog is about the quilt, however, and how I am turning a quilting bug into a feature. I want to include some hanging beaded strings to represent roots, but that tends to weigh the quilt down. With a piece this small, that could cause quite a bit of distortion. “Self,” I said, “why don’t you put a wire in the bottom and attach the beaded strings to that?” So I did.

The backing and batting for the roots are wired. I left the top free so I can twist it around and still have a flat surface on the front. That’s the solution I came up with for cutting the top root fabric so narrow that I couldn’t turn any of it under to make the facing. Yes, I turned that bug into a feature.

Beading to the point of encrusting will distort a quilt in odd ways. That’s the second bug I turned into a feature. Since this quilt is supposed to be about nature and organic things, I cut a gentle curve into the sides. Now I won’t have to worry about odd pulls, because I meant the edge to be wavy. At least that’s the story I’m going to tell.
Luck and wisdom!