Uki-Ori

Well I thought I'd finally post an image of the original version of the quilt I made Jessica and Harland. It was called "Uki-Ori" and no, I don't know what that means; neither part of the word is in my dusty Nihongo memory banks.


If you'd like to check out the original magazine issue of Quilts With Style where I found it as well then click here. Jess don't look too closely at the measurements! It came out less on yours mostly due to my dorky craft table and how it sags when I push down to cut, which torks all the edges, then when I trim them as I go to make them straight for piecing, I lose 1/4 to 1/2 inch here and there :) Ahhhhh... some day I'll have my big art/sewing room with unsaggy workspaces instead of a $20-dollar folding masonite craft table which takes over the entire bedroom to boot!...

It's funny but now that I look at their fabrics and color scheme again after so long of looking at the one I was working on, I'm kind of amazed that I saw the potential for using the fabrics I had. It is remarkably different, n'est-ce pas? And really I remember that as soon as I saw their version, I thought, Holy cow that would look great with those fabrics I've been saving for J&H. I'm kind of impressed with myself all of a sudden. Kee. I still really like their version but I must say that it is Quite Fun with my colors, plus I think my bird fabric works much better for the corner fields than their big mum thing. Also, it's hard to see but their middle with repeating the various Hokusai-type geisha-y views looks really funny to me now that I've got used to the more blendable landscape print that I used.


...But, well, I suppose I'm slightly biased. :) Still, their Asian motif is what made me take another look at it since I already had the fabric and it was kind of Asian, too. Another take might be really bright or at least warm colors rather than either my dark and brights or their mostly subdued ones in the original.

If you want to make a quilt with this magazine, tho, I have to say that there were a couple of directions that were downright wrong, namely measurements that didn't add up; plus it had me cut way too many of the strip pieces. Better than too few, sure, but still I probably could have bought less fabric or saved more of it uncut for other projects. I think I'm going to use up the strips by making a fun shoulderbag/totebag but still... But for the most part this was a nice clear pattern and they were right about the time estimate so I'd almost certainly make another quilt out of their mag if I see more I like and think would work with fabrics I'm saving for something.

So there.