In yesterday’s blog, I stated that I made 13 quilts for one customer out of her mother’s beautiful clothes. I received clothes of every color and texture and was able to make quilts for both men and women out of them. When my customer Deonna told her father what I was going to do he liked the idea, but asked that I not make his quilt “too light colored”. So I concentrated on using rich dark colors and to make his quilt luxurious, I chose a dark green velour exercise suit, a dark purple velour vest, a rich brown suede skirt and a maroon sweatshirt plus four other dark items. Using a very simple block pattern, I made a 60 by 72 inch quilt that he now keeps on the top of his bed. He says he loves the soft, rich feel of it.
Working with velour is not an easy task. Although I used the heaviest backing, I found that the best way to sew two pieces together (or even one piece of velour with anything at all) was to start in the middle and work slowly outwards, often stitching one stitch at a time and keeping the ends tight together. The velour tends to catch and if one is not careful, it bunches. I learned from making this quilt that had I used smaller pieces it would have worked better. A simple quilt isn’t always an easy quilt. But when it was finished, it turned out much better than I expected and the small number of bunches were hidden from view because of the dark material.