Quilt Square in Glass

I spend most of my crafting time, which isn’t a lot because of demands of a full time job in insurance, making stained glass lamps or panels. But on my birthday weekend in 2019, my cousin decided that we would have a cousin reunion because she was going to come up from Florida for a landscape quilting class. She signed up all the quilters in the family and even the non-quilters. I have some pretty talented quilters for cousins…..

Well, I kicked and screamed….not really… but wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of spending a day sewing. First of all, I don’t sew. I own a 40 year-old sewing machine that was once owned by my ex mother-in-law but I used it once in an attempt to cover my sunroom seat cushions. It wasn’t pretty.

I literally showed up for class an hour late because it was in the same neighborhood as my favorite stained glass store so I used it as an excuse to procrastinate. I finally got to the class that was being held in a lovely little quilting store in an old factory building converted to studio space and they found me a spot at a table next to the cousins.

The cousins were all busy building their beach scenes and there was a huge pile of fabric sitting in the middle of the table that they brought from their own treasure troves of fabric. So they told me to pick out fabric for sky, water and sand and start cutting. Ultimately, I found this very similar in picking glass for a project – the variety of textures, colors and patterns was endless.

Ultimately this was the beach quilt that I designed – I never did finish it because I still don’t know how to sew and it needs a border, backing and some machine quilting that my ancient sewing machine isn’t up to.

Being in the quilt store, flipping through quilt pattern books made me think that stained glass and quilting are not too far removed. You pick a pattern (or design one), cut the pattern pieces out of your favorite material or glass and assemble it… And like many quilters, when you’re done with a project, you have lots and lots and LOTS of leftover material. The same happens in stained glass. This gave me an idea – I could build quilt squares using my leftover glass. These would be fairly quick weekend projects that would give me a sense of accomplishment after a grueling work week.

This is the first quilt block I made using glass leftover from a pair of panels I installed in the barn doors in my bedroom closet.

This is the second one that I made using glass leftover from a tiffancy reproduction laburnum lamp.

This is the most recent adventure into quilt squares. As you can see, I’m playing with colors to get the springtime color scheme just right.

I will post a picture when it’s complete.