Cathedral windows!

Oh my gosh, you guys! Look what I did last night:

cathedral window quilt

I know, right? Cathedral windows! I can honestly say that I love, love, love them. I can also honestly say that I'm never going to make a cathedral window quilt.

My starting squares are 12" instead of the 9" recommended in the tutorial. I cut fabric for nine squares and after folding the third square, I'd decided a quilt was not in my future. This is where I usually quit a project but I was still curious about cathedral window quilting so I went ahead and finished preparing all nine squares and sewed them together. Now my base is just the right size for a pillow. Or maybe a wall hanging for my studio?

cathedral window quilt

I really do enjoy turning these curvy edges and hand sewing them down. It's very satisfying! But I'm pretty sure I'll stop enjoying it after about four more hours of work. And a quilt would take considerably longer than that.

So, for now I'm going to enjoy these little curvy windows and anticipate looking at them for years to come. I still recommend trying it out for yourself, even if a quilt is not in your future either. There's something satisfying about manipulating a flat piece of fabric into something mind-bogglingly different.

And while I'm on the subject of manipulating fabric, I highly recommend The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Colette Wolff. If you've ever wondered how to do anything with fabric, it's in this book. Tucks and ruffles, smocking and quilting, pleating and gathering...it's just amazing how many ways a flat piece of fabric can be transformed.

Oh, and Elaine, my current obsession with magenta is all thanks to you. I was never a fan but now I can't get enough. Don't you love it when that happens?

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