Saturday 16 May 2009

Earlier work 3: Leather quilt

Years ago (and I mean years ago) I bought a bag of chamois leather off-cuts from a upholstery shop. This bag of off-cuts landed between my fabric stash and stayed there. I kept on thinking I have to do something with it, but I could never come up with a good idea. After about 10 years and 3 house moves I decided I either had to do something with it or throw it away. So I started to cut all the off-cuts into 5cm wide strips. When I had a small mountain of strips I started to add the pieces together into one looong strip. After that I made log cabin blocks with the strips.

Instead of using paper as a base I used squares of flannel. I joined all the strips by just placing them side by side and zigzagged over the edges. The leather was to thick to make seams. I just carried on making blocks until I turned the mountain of strips into a pile of blocks. I then used the same method of zigzag stitching to add the blocks together.

Finding the right fabric for a backing was also a problem. I had to use a heavy weight fabric to go with the heavy leather so in the end I chose an upholstery fabric in a complementary mustardy and brown colour to finish it off.
In the beginning I was worried that the circles on the fabric wouldn't go with the squares but now I thing it takes the hard edge of the squares and gives the quilt a softer look. I hand quilted the squares with a dark brown thread to complement the inner squares of every block.
The quilt is quite heavy but have a very luxurious feel to it. It looks better that the R25 ($2.86) I paid for the bag of off-cuts!

3 comments:

mimilove forever said...

That is beautiful! I think that backing works beautifully too...must have been hard work just on the weight of it alone! x:)

Debi R said...

This is absolutely gorgeous! Why is it on the floor? It should be entered in the quilt shows! *grin*

Unknown said...

Hi Debbie
I don't know if you will find my reply here - I tried to find your email, but it isn't on your profile...
I only put it on the floor to take the photo. Normally it is folded and in a basket in the livingroom. We sometimes use it when we sit on the couch, but we live in the desert too, so don't really need blankets for most of the year.
Thanks for looking at my blog!