Quilts made from travels

It was only recently, when my quilt-count had risen into the double digits, that I realized I was a quilter. I’m not the typical kind, if there is such a thing. I don’t have a gracious barren table, flooded with light and lined by machines with names like serger and long arm. I’m lucky if I bother to match thread with fabric. I appreciate the intricate patterns of traditional quilting, but I like my own brand of simple, inspired hand quilting. Above all, my quilting philosophy is to make blankets that will be used.

I’ve taken my finished quilts on more than one research trip. In fact, my poodle quilt was with me in Seattle during most of my time there writing GrassRoutes Guide to Seattle. What caught my interest was where the fabrics came from and how the quilts came into being.

Like all my other quilts – whether I’ve kept them or made them for friends – the poodle quilt started with one piece of fabric. I was matching a button at my local fabric shop, Stone Mountain and Daughter, when I spotted this cool lime and baby blue pattern. I had just enough change for a yard, and when I got home I couldn’t bring myself to put it away so I made a quick pillow case and slept on it that very night. Silly, I know.

I took that pillow case with me when I headed for Olympia, Washington to do another guidebook. During my temporary residence I became a fan of Bayside Quilting. A few days before I was planning to leave I found this poodle fabric on sale. I bought all that they had – not only was it dirt cheap, but it was a low-pile flannel, my favorite.

Next I did a new edition of my Portland book. I can never get through Portland without a trip to the Bins – the Salvation Army donation and sorting center where you purchase by the pound. The Bins offered up a spiffy vintage bedspread that weighed next to nothing. I knew I could easily patch up the few holes and incorporate it into the design, giving it new life.

As I wove through the Shasta area mountains and back down to the Bay Area, writing and rewriting the books and writing some more, I thought of the pieces of cloth I had collected on my travels and came up with a vision. Before I started working on my next book I had finished the poodle quilt. I used the rest of the pillow fabric for the quilt’s edging and put some cut-out hearts of the poodle fabric onto the pillows so they became a set.

Writing that Seattle book represented the culmination of my travel writing career up to that point, so it worked nicely to have parts of the whole journey there with me, in quilt form.

Picking up odds and ends of fabric while you are traveling is a fun habit. I’ve met some remarkable ladies at various quilting and fabric stores along the West Coast. I just make sure that I’m actually going to make something with it before I stash it in my luggage.

I got this pink and white silk at a flea market, and used a thrifted wool blanket from Cap Hill in Seattle for the filler. The edges were from a costume from the SF Opera (they have a sale every few years to slim down their collections).

The orange and red quilts below contain fabrics from multiple continents!

What crafts are inspired by your travels?

Quick Tip: Wash the fabric before quilting with it. The fabric can change shape after its first wash or if it hasn’t been washed in a long time.