Quiltalong - 2022

I can’t wait to see it! I’m sure it looks great!!

I’m working on a baby quilt too. I’ve been working on it for a while. The blocks are way more annoying to make than I had expected it to be. It needed a million half square triangles and I had kind of forgotten I don’t like those. It’s coming along nicely now, I wish I could show a picture! I haven’t been crafting much lately and one big reason was that this project was on top of the pile and I had really started to hate it.

It was intended to be a gift for the youngest child of a childhood friend and their wife, but honestly… relations have always been tense with the wife and they have gotten more complicated. I don’t really want to send my hard work to someone I dislike so much. The bought gift is enough. Then, a dear childhood friend of Mr Imma, who I also like a lot, announced her pregnancy this week! We hadn’t seen that coming but we are so happy for her. So I’ve decided that the finished quilt will go to her instead and I immediately felt relieved and much more optimistic about finishing it.

It’s a complex situation with the childhood friend. If the man/wife-roles were reversed it would certainly be called an abusive marriage. I grew up in an abusive marriage and my mother didn’t leave until I was an adult, because she had no place to go to. I’ve kept in touch with the friend for all of their 10 years of marriage to give them an exit. But the negative energy has cost me so much. I’m sticking with Christmas and birthday gifts/cards but I can’t keep pretending to like that bigoted, spiteful woman.

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Yikes, very sad & scary. I would have a difficult time giving creative energy over to a person like that as well. I’d like to think I could do it just for the friend but honestly, I am simply not that good. Resentment would burn inside me.

I’m working on a baby quilt as well, a scrappy garden game started May 2020, ha. The friend’s baby is a toddler now but she just had another baby so I plan to finish it soon. Like most of my WIPs it was abandoned at 80% complete so there isn’t much left to do.

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@Immaculata It doesn’t matter the sex of the couple, if one party is abusive, it’s an abusive marriage. Hang in there with your friend, they will need you.

I am excited to see the quilt. My neice showed me a picture of her three boys, each on his own baby quilt, ages abput 5, 3, and 1. They love their grand aunties quilts.

@Magpie , :grinning: there’s always another baby no matter how long a quilt takes. Thank goodness my family has slowed down on adding to the next generation.

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I have a similar situation. I’m close with David, the husband. He’s kind, funny, easy going, deeply caring, and a true team player. But he was very overweight as a child/teenager, and was bullied & even beaten very badly. He’s a normal body type now, and while he does exercise & make healthy food choices, he also doesn’t avoid a beer or a burger at a party; and his exercise regime isn’t as hardcore as some who struggled with weight early on. By the time he met his wife in college, he had lost the weight, and was a new person. None of his new college friends knew him as overweight, and he got to start over. But that part of him that still feels like the ‘fat kid with no friends’ (his words, NOT mine), is very grateful for any attention and kindness shown him.

Enter his wife, who is perfectly average-pretty. She’s not a model, she’s just a rather normally shaped woman with even features and good skin and hair. (Please know, I’m not trying to demean her in any way. I’m also not a model!) She’s also smart, funny, loves her family, and determined. But in David’s world, a pretty girl paid attention to him for the first time, and it was amazing. He worships the ground she walks on. She is a goddess who picked him, and he will never feel worthy of her. Because of that she controls everything in their relationship. She makes every decision, and tells him what to do and what ‘they’ like. There is no compromise or teamwork, and it’s sad to see.

When they were trying to get pregnant with their second child, she picked a 2-month span she wanted the baby to be born in, and was adamant that David MUST get her pregnant at exactly the right time, ‘or else’. Gee, no pressure. You can’t control mother nature. You can try your best, but even all the ‘work’ at the exact right times, can’t be certain that you’ll conceive. But she kept saying he ‘better get her pregnant or else’. I know she doesn’t hit him, but not all abuse is physical; that kind of implied threat can be truly damaging to ones psyche.

When they did get pregnant, it was a summer that I had 4 friends having babies, so I made 4 strip quilts that I could do quickly & easily. When they were done, I showed David, and asked him to pick his favorite for his new daughter. He immediately said he’d go show Amanda, so she could decide. I had to explain that I was asking for his favorite. That she got to choose everything else for the baby, but this one choice, was for him, from me. He still seemed so uncomfortable about it, like he was afraid he’d get in trouble for choosing the wrong one. I finally told him I’d never tell Amanda that I let him choose. I’d just mail it as though it were a surprise to both of them, and he finally picked one he liked. I broke my heart.

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That’s such a sad story! I’m glad he got to pick his favourite quilt. That’s at least something he got to choose for his own child. It’s sad that this story is so recognizable.

My friend has also always been insecure, he was bullied, his family was emotionally distant. We both sat with the geeks at school. My mum volunteered at our school and they developed a bond, too. He’d had his heart broken a few times before so when he met this girl in college he was so happy. She didn’t seem so bad at first, just a bit odd, but the behaviour grew worse over time. Literally from the day they started dating no one has talked to him one on one. I don’t mean just other girls, it includes his parents. And you’re right @marionberries abuse is abuse, but when a man doesn’t allow a woman to go anywhere, it’s called controlling, but when a woman demands her husband to literally never leave her side people say it’s his duty to protect her.

But what I hate most is just how mean she always is. She’ll say mean things with a big smile on her face, too. Every time we meet she keeps asking me why we don’t have children, even though she knows there’s a medical backstory to that. At first I thought she maybe forgot but she keeps asking, usually when her husband is in the kitchen making tea. It’s very painful. When they first visited our new house one of the first things she said, before she even entered the house, was “the house is cute, but we could never live here, since we want to have family”. She had bumped into one of our neighbours while getting out of the car and looked very scared - that neighbour is a Black man. We live in a very safe and also very diverse neigbhourhood. Good thing we don’t have kids, or they would have grown up thinking people who are of colour, or gay, or without a college degree are equal to rich white people /s.

Obviously, when I called her out on it she only meant the size of the house… but this has happened too many times for it to be a misunderstanding. She also keeps mentioning Mr. Imma’s “white thrash” background in a sneaky way and it makes my blood boil. It’s true he’s from a working class background, and that’s not something he’s ashamed of (no one should). But I am from a very similar background as him. The fact that my friend, has never told his wife that says a lot. I do hope he can be a good influence on their children so they don’t grow up like her.

But enough about her! The quilt is nearly done and we’ll give it to Mr. Imma’s friend next month. The baby won’t be born until after summer but when it’s born we’ll just get more presents.

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This is the rainbow scrap quilt I made for the UU’s. It must have been about 10 years ago? It contains scrap strips of so many other wedding and baby and anniversary quilts.

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-I MistressJennie offer Ombre Rainbow Stars Baby Quilt for my large challenge entry

I might normally count this as a Medium entry, but somehow, finishing a quilt while 9 months pregnant seems like a huge feat! Especially the pinning. Baby did NOT like me being on my hands and knees, laying out the quit sandwich and pinning it all. My husband ended up coming in to help me lay it out all perfectly smooth, and get some of the pins in, all while on guard duty so the dog didn’t run in and jump on it while I worked. LOL

Here’s the project post:

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Beautiful, and what a treasure

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I finished the top for the HST baby quilt! Or maybe I’m going to add a border.

Aaaand… Another couple announced they’re having a baby. We hadn’t seen that one coming either. The father is a friend of Mr. Imma. I asked him if they’d like a baby quilt and what kind of fabric I should use. He said "something like that cool dino quilt you made for X’. Well, surprise, surprise, there are leftovers! So I’ll be making another one. This is the original Dinoroar kids quilt. I bought a yard each of the fabrics and the quilt shop decided to throw in a second panel for free. I think I only ran out of one of the fabrics + I also have like 40 leftover HST’s!

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Had to wait until daylight to take a picture but here’s the HST baby quilt!

I have another 20 HST that ended up being too small, I’m thinking of adding a white border and adding a pinwheel block in each corner.

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I love the color progression, loose but clustered. It’s really happy and fun.

Or you could use the small HST to make a design on the back.

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I like the idea but I’m not sure I love it with the intended backing fabric:

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Ooh, I like the idea of those as border corners. They’ll be a fun addition to the quilt!

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I agree, not loving those with the backing. But they will look lovely in the corners.

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:tada::tada: Announcement :tada::tada:

There is a new sitewide craft challenge contest. If you have made something inspired by this(or any other) craftalong, then this challenge is for you.
Inspired-along 2022 lettuce craft challenge

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I’m working on the back of my 15 Stars quilt today. It took a couple tries, but I finally tracked down enough of that cream Constitution fabric to finish the borders. Once I get the block sections sewn together, I can get everything measured, cut, and assembled. (There needs to be a border all around the center panel, and then around the whole thing.)

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:open_mouth: That is one fancy backing!!

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Thanks! I couldn’t help myself.

I have it mostly done…it just needs a border of that cream fabric to get it up to size. But, that can wait for another day.

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It’s too dark to take a proper picture but I finished the rainbow baby quilt top! Finally. Once I changed my mind on who to give it to, it suddenly became much easier to finish.

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Here it is:

On my bed because that’s the largest open space in the house while doing laundry. I hope to finish it this week.

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