Last week, I discussed the three (usually) layers that make up a quilt top, and as I said, as I was working on that blog, I had planned to expand on each layer there. Four pages (Yes, I do like to compose on paper often!) later, and I wasn’t even finished yet with what I wanted to say. So, I decided to dedicate a blog to each layer of the quilt because apparently, I have a lot to say!
The quilt top, sometimes called a flimsy, is usually the pieced portion of the quilt. Though, scraps make great backs to quilts…so backs can be pieced, too. The top consists of blocks and possibly borders, unless it is a wholecloth quilt. a wholecloth quilt is a quilt that has one fabric on the front and the quilting is the star of the show, creating the beautiful designs in the quilt. These quilts may have one or two seams, but they are not considered pieced like other quilts.
It is only appropriate to show a Hurricane’s Towel quilt, since they are NHL Champions! This quilt has a fantastic top with the white spirit towels surrounded by black sashing, and the Hurricanes’ fabric is wonderful as the outer border!
In T-Shirt Quilts, the T-Shirt blocks, sashing, and borders makeup the quilt top. They don’t always have to have sashing or borders, either. Often the quilt top is the most intricate part of the quilt, and it takes the most time to make. The top is the show piece, and the number of skills and aesthetics in those tops vary widely and beautifully! Applique, curved piecing, embroidery…the list of what can make up a quilt top are immense, which is the fun part!
This close-up of a Classic T-Shirt Quilt top shows how lovely the simple block design can be.
Quilts can be double-sided, though, too, meaning both the front and the back are equally as important; either one can be the “front of the quilt”, and both sides are pieced and decorative. T-Shirt Quilts and Memory Quilts can be double sided, too, and work especially well if you have a lot of shirts or clothing to use.
Actual quilt top alone before the layering and quilting takes place…this rainbow pixel quilt is so beautiful and made with Cherrywood fabrics, which are wonderfully rich in color.
Sending Quilty Love,
Ginger
Reading Now: I think I will finish You Can’t Go Home Again this next week…I am still enjoying it over 600 pages in, and I have learned a lot about Thomas Wolfe, too. The novel is the last one he wrote and was published posthumously. I am also reading The Jane Austin Book Club, and now I am adding more Austin to my To Be Read Pile and The Mysteries of Uldolpho, which might be a good fall book to read during the gothic autumn. I am also reading Wonder Woman: Blood and Guts, which is a compilation of that series of comics in the new smaller graphic novel format of Compact Comics put out by DC. My reading plate is over flowing, and I am happy.
NPR is a great place to get unbiased, factual, honest news. Kindness is everything.