Do you follow the blog Em Celebrates? As soon as you see the header photo, you'll know you're in the right place! Em is a nurse in Washingnton, and she's OOAK! (One of a kind. Heehee.) There's so much enthusiasm and energy on her blog I may have to go take a nap. I love that selvage vase above.
Em says that when she picked up this quilt (below), the machine quilter kept saying that this was the oddest quilt she had ever done. Haha. It's one of Em's favorites. What's the funniest thing that anyone has ever said about one of your quilts?
I gifted a rescue quilt to a co-worker. (rescue is a top that was found at a thrift store and finished) She told me her hubby said " Cheryl didn't make this, it is from a store, it is so nice" (seriously saying a quilt is store bought is not a compliment!) then he folded it and said " I guess she did make it, it doesn't fold up straight"
ReplyDeleteI told my friend that I am going to use that line next time I gift a quilt.
"I made it wonky on purpose so you would know it wasn't store bought"- I need to post that story sometime- still makes me laugh- cw
PRECIOSO.JANA
ReplyDeleteOne of my coworkers looked at my "Daft Zebras" quilt (black and white letters on a neon-green background, designed to be completely wild)and said "Wow, that's BRIGHT." She's right, but the expression on her face was priceless. I make unusual quilts, and I'm pretty sure a lot of odd things get said about them - out of my hearing.
ReplyDeletePrecioso el blog Em celebrates es impresionante
ReplyDeleteA Tennessee State Fair quilt judge visited our guild to give a lecture. Afterwards, she critiqued our quilts. When she saw mine she said, "That's an interesting use of fabric!" Haha. That still makes me laugh.
ReplyDeleteYears ago a quilter said she was quilting a top for a friend. When her husband saw her working on it he exclaimed, "That's the most beautiful quilt you've ever made!" Oops!
ReplyDeleteKaren, I am smiling big and at the same time so humbled that you would spotlight my blog and energy. The fun for me in this project was coming up with the idea in a random place, envisioning all of the different selvage projects you have created and inspired and then thinking, "After wondering and wondering, the idea is here to play with!" May you have a wonderful day and I look forward to reading the comments of your readers about the funniest things they have been told about their quilts!!! I am already giggling at the responses!!! Love, Em
ReplyDeletemy long arm quilter referred to one of my quilts as "The Beast". It had a lot of custom quilting on it. the really funny thing is, she was also the designer of the pattern!!
ReplyDeleteI put a watercolor quilt in an art exhibit once, and was asked why I would cut up a perfectly nice picture and sew it back together again. She did not know how many different fabrics it took to make that picture....at least 60 as I recall. Still smiling at that one!
ReplyDeleteFunniest thing: I asked my Mother if she would like to look at my quilts on my webpage and she said she wasn't interested. Later my cousin looked at my webpage and told my Mother she must be very proud of me and my quilts. My Mother had to tell her she had never looked at them!!! HA!!!
ReplyDeleteNon-quilter friends often ask, "What do you DO with all these quilts?" A few have even suggested that I ought to move onto something else, now that I have "enough!" Thanks for the good laughs, everyone.
ReplyDeleteOne time as I was checking out at my hair salon, the scheduler spotted a couple of miniature quilt tops (about 6-inch square) I had brought to show my stylist. "What are you going to do with those, make potholders?" Yikes.
ReplyDeleteI gave a mother to a newboorn child a Log Cabin quilt I made. She looked at it and say:
ReplyDelete-I know a woman who can sew real American quilts.
Hrmmm... and what is a Log Cabin quilt?
I'm a longarm quilter and had a VERY nice quilt on the frame. The "bugman" was spraying the house and said,"Wow-you ought to sell those at the flea market". He was serious!
ReplyDeleteI offered up one of my quilts at my daughter's school fete as a raffle prize. We overheard a young boy saying 'that's a well lame blanket.'
ReplyDeleteMy 88-year-old neighbor lady commented, "I just don't understand you girls cutting up new goods into little pieces and sewing them back together again."
ReplyDelete"Slightly disturbing." :-) This was for a spiderweb quilt where I used spider web fabric for the centers of each piece --- yes, it was slightly disturbing!
ReplyDeleteSomeone commented that a bed quilt with so many bright colors in it would keep her up all night. I get that a lot.
ReplyDeletePoppyprint said she was asked how long it takes to knit a quilt. Haha!
ReplyDeleteI made a Winding Ways quilt from a kit I ordered online. The fabrics were all batiks and might not have been my first choice of fabrics, but all the pieces were precut. When I finished it, my son took a look at it and told me it looked like I had robbed a hippie. I named the quilt, The Naked Hippie.
ReplyDeleteI had a cousin ask me to custom design and make a quilt for her daughter.. She said "I'll pay you!" I do these for customers from time to time. So, I came up with 3 different designs for her to choose from, using her daughter's room and favourite colours for inspiration. I gave her a price list for supplies and told her I'd do it "labor-free" since it was for her. She only needed to cover the supplies, which came to about $150. She said "Oh, I thought it would be about $20." I told her to go to Wal-mart..
ReplyDeleteNot my quilt, but I over heard a lady at a quilt show looking at a beautiful colour wash quilt that had a pale centre and dark edges, saying 'what a shame it's faded in the middle' !!!
ReplyDeleteI made a quilt for my daughter when she graduated from high school and moved into a new apartment. She was picky picky and it was one I sent out for quilting so she couldn't complain about anything. Of course she picked out the most expensive fabrics and wanted it huge!
ReplyDeleteFour years later I see the quilt in the trunk of her car. She says, Well, I thought you would LIKE the fact that if I ever got stopped by the side of the road that it would keep me warm.
Folks, I live in Southern Louisiana!
glen: needless to say the quilt is OUT of her trunk now.
My dear nephew was serving in Iraq and I told him I was making a quilt for him. He was very pleased at the thought and asked if I could also make them for all the guys on his crew, all twelve of them. Since I had already worked more than 200 hours on his quilt, I told him no, I couldn't do that.
ReplyDeleteMy husband thinks my schoolhouse blocks remind him of the song 'Little boxes' - all the houses made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same and the background in grey with words on it (they are scholhouses) looks like they have a tarmac garden! I see his point on that bit and will need to add bright sashing!
ReplyDeleteI made a beautiful paper-pieced Pineapple Star quilt from Amy Butler and batik fabrics, and had it quilted with a very contemporary long arm design. I was thrilled when it was juried into the Pacific International Quilt show here in California in 2007. The day that I attended the show I was delighted to see it showcased in a nice spot at the end of an aisle. As I walked towards it, I came up behind two older ladies who were looking at it and heard one of them say to the other one, "Oh, my! What WAS she thinking?"
ReplyDeleteI wanted to make my SIL a quilt, but when I mentioned it to her she said that she would want to see it first before she decided. There and then I 'decided' for her that I wasn't going to bother :-(
ReplyDelete"where did you get that fabric?"
ReplyDeletewhich one i answer numerous times and to which i repled
...which one?
"That one"
this is around and round because i paint fabrics mostly and i sew bits and pieces together to get what i am thinking about color and texture wise and seeing that one as a whole . and hearing yet again "where did you get that fabric from?" i must say" i made it my self".
My father kept saying how much he liked the quilt that I was making. When it was all finished, he again said how much he liked it. Even said that I should enter it into a contest. When I said "so you really like my stripey squares?" He said no, he liked the other side. !!! (fabric print of circles)
ReplyDelete7 year old nephew asks,"You LIKE cutting up fabric just to stitch it back again?"!! Sometimes I get variations of that from adults too :-)
ReplyDelete7 year old nephew asks,"You LIKE cutting up fabric just so you can stitch it back again?"!! I get variations of that from some adults too :-)
ReplyDeleteI made my mum a quilt and she put it on her sofa with the back of the quilt showing and the label on display and she would proudly tell everyone that her daughter had made it. I often wonder what people thought was on the other side.
ReplyDeleteThe strangest comment I have received is the "no acknowledgement." None whatsoever! i have given several quilts that I don't really know if the people received them. No response whatsoever. kinda takes the wind out of you. I spend a lot of time and then money to have long arm quilting. here are 2 pics of one I gave for a relative wedding that I took to the wedding and left with gifts at table (in a gift bag). No response.
ReplyDeletehttps://picasaweb.google.com/100288290625023663494/2011Quilts02#5602661392266613090
https://picasaweb.google.com/100288290625023663494/2011Quilts02#5598343638274063106
I made a wonderful portrait quilt of one of my sisters friends. When I gave it to her, she said, "boy, you have a lot of time on you hands!"
ReplyDeleteI worked in a quilting store and we had a workman come in to do a repair.
ReplyDeleteHe looked around and kept calling the quilts rugs. A co-worker tried to explain quilts to him but he still called them rugs.
I designed some modern applique flowers and all my father could say was. I've seen something like that before.
Well every idea probably does come out of another idea.
We had an extended family gathering at my house recently. My sister-in-law saw my new 40 yard roll of batting, grabbed it, lugged it upstairs and told everyone that she thinks I need an "intervention".
ReplyDeletemy daughter on receiving the first quilt I made for her daughter, said 'can I use it as a quilt!'
ReplyDeleteFaye x
Overheard at a quilt show: "These quilts were quilted by longarm quilters. I could never make a quilt because my arms are too short."
ReplyDeleteOverheard at a quilt show: "These quilts were quilted by longarm quilters. I could never make a quilt because my arms are too short."
ReplyDeleteI was selling I Spy quilts, table runners, and some quilted throws. I did all of the work on all of them. A man walked up to my table and closely inspected many of my items. He eventually glanced up and saw me. "You make all of these?"
ReplyDelete"Yes, sir", I replied.
"You've been doing a lot of knitting!" was his response.
When I have shown my hand-quilted quilts to friends I have been told, "You did that on a machine." Now, I could take that as a compliment to my small and even stitching, on the other hand, what kind of idiot can't tell the difference between hand and machine stitches?
ReplyDeleteI donated a nice throw to my mother-in-law for a raffle her club was having. She won the throw & asked if I would sew a ruffle on it so it would fit her guest bed! To add insult to injury, the tickets were only 50 cents!
ReplyDeleteMy sister-in-laws (3) told my Mother in law that the only reason I make them baby quilts is so i don't have to buy "real" gifts. They all get something off the registry now!
ReplyDeleteMy husband described the color palette of the quilt I made for out bed as looking, "like the crayon factory threw up on it." He quickly amended the statement to, "in a good way! Really!"
ReplyDeleteThese comments are delightful! When I was a junior professor coming up for tenure, I had to hide my quilting activities when some senior professors a. If this was a good use of my time; b. If serious scholars do "handicrafts!" Now I'm a senior prof and encourage junior faculty to do whatever makes them feel fulfilled outside of work.
ReplyDeleteI made a quilt as a birthday gift for my husband. When his sister heard that, all she asked was: "why?"...
ReplyDeleteOverheard at a quilt show "Well if you can't throw it in the washer, its not a real quilt". And at another quilt show: "If you didn't cut up old clothes to make it, its not a real quilt". Oh Really?
ReplyDelete