Tag Archives: Tropical Teardrops

Tropical Teardrops – Finished Quilt

I finished this quilt back in October, but I’m only now getting around to posting pictures. I did a show called the Ravenswood Art Walk over the weekend of October 3-4. Not knowing how busy I was going to be (as with all shows) I decided to bring a project along to finish up. Technically, I’ve been working on Tropical Teardrops for a while (2-3 years); it was originally a commissioned project that I hand sketched & colored. The client liked it but for whatever reason decided not to buy it. I was still intrigued by the idea so I decided to work up the project anyway. On the left is the original sketch, on the right is the pieced quilt top. I mounted this top to a batting & backing and then stitched it vertically in several sections, following the black piping. I then attached a binding & just needed to hand stitch it to the back of the quilt. That was my task on October 3rd, and I was very happy to have finished. I really had no intentions of selling it; during construction I had a number of issues and if I had it to do over again, I’d do it a different way. But once I finished the binding, I decided to hang it in my display space anyway as an example of my work. On October 4th, the piece sold. I told the purchaser that it was an imperfect piece, and I didn’t really want to sell it, but she asked, “Well, how much for an imperfect piece?” How charming is that? Here’s where the unusual part happened… she asked me to turn it into a pillow. I know some of you art quilters are gasping in shock at such an idea (and maybe some of the traditional quilters too) – but once somebody buys something, it’s up to them how they want to use it. If this person would enjoy my creation much more fully as a pillow than as a wall hanging, so be it. I basically turned it into a pillow cover, with a separate insert that I created & stuffed. I had a heck of a time getting the right level of “stuffing” in the pillow so the snaps would close properly. Converting a finished quilt into a pillow isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do, but once I figured it out, it wasn’t that bad! So here is the finished quilt… er, pillow: Happy quilting!

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