Grandpa's Tools

 

Tools have always reminded me of my father. So, when I saw this quilt kit, I decided I must have it. It features fabric from Northcott's Nuts and Bolts line. 

The quilt pattern is Chianti from Villa Rosa Designs. And it's quite boring. All it is is squares with frames. Monotonous. The pattern calls for 16 fat quarters, plus 5/8 yard for binding. And I was to cut enough pieces from each fat quarter to make 3 blocks (squares and frames) and then, when assembling just mix them up so that I didn't end up using the same fabric for both squares and frames. However, the bundle that came with this kit included 11 fabrics from the Nuts and Bolts line plus 5 from the Moda Basic Grey Grunge line. Nothing against Grunge fabrics (in spite of the fact that I really don't like that name) - they make great blenders, but I really didn't want to feature them in the squares. Two of the fabrics from the Nuts and Bolts line were these two, which I also didn't want to feature in the squares. 

I wanted this quilt to be about the tools. The nice thing about using large pieces of fabric in a quilt top is the opportunity to bring the focus to prints that you want the focus on, especially large prints, without chopping them up too small. So, instead, I used the tool fabric for the 6" squares. I also had to use some of it for the frames as there was not enough of the blender fabrics to do them all. 
As I mentioned, I found this pattern rather boring. I was hoping that I would like it better when I put it all together. I didn't. While there are some awesome colours in it - especially that lime green and the electric blue, I just don't find the overall effect aesthetically pleasing. Then I was hoping maybe quilting it would help. I remember when I did Baby Alter Ego, it, too, was a lot of different fabrics with nothing to really pull it together. But when I started quilting it, I liked it a lot better. Unfortunately, that didn't happen with this one. It's still just meh.
You may recall that I have come up with my own goofy terms for rating quilts:

• the bodley quilt for ugly
• the nacho quiltfor not your (or my) favourite quilt
• the Gladys Over quilt for glad it's over, which is not really about appearance, but more about how tedious/labour intensive a quilt was to make

Well, this is definitely a nacho quilt. And I really had second thoughts about whether or not I actually wanted to gift it. Because it was made in honour of my father, I had chosen my oldest nephew's son, who was named after may father, as the recipient. But it's not stunning, it's not heart-stirring or soul-inspiring. It's just meh. Fortunately, I was able to find the amazing electric blue fabric from the Nuts and Bolts line on sale and purchased it for the backing, and my great nephew's favourite colours are blue and orange, and there's plenty of both in this quilt. And the tool fabric is awesome, even if they missed a couple of letters in spelling "pipe wrench" in the white fabric (surprisingly enough, not in the black). 

I used the Hand Tools pantograph by Dave Hudson from Urban Elementz and royal blue Glide thread for the quilting. 

So, hopefully, the recipient will love it, even though his great aunt isn't particularly thrilled with it. 
On to the next quilt...