Tuesday 12 September 2006

Quilted chaps

     One of my current projects is a pair of quilted chaps. I got the idea one day when I ran across some fabulous cotton lamé batik fabric. I of course bought lots of fabric and immediately began work on a design. I soon decided that the fabulous batiks had to be quilted and began looking for a proper quilt pattern. I decided on the friendship star pattern which I saw in the book The Quilt Makers Gift. It's a beautiful but simple quilt which I feel will look great on these chaps and stars and glitter just seem to go well together.      I soon ran into problems though. Namely in the fringe. I had decided on braided fringe made from the lamé going down the leg, but soon found that it was almost impossible to fold strips of the lamé. And there the project stood for over a year.      Then a couple of weeks ago it occurred to me that I could use metallic ribbon, still braided of course, for the fringe. So I got the fabric out of storage and began working up the design again.      Currently I see two problems. The first, and most important is that I seem to have barely not enough fabric, and of course the fabric is no longer to be found. But I looked hard, and have found some lamé that matches the blue wood grain like pattern in a nice shade of green. It runs about $10/yd, and a yard is way more than I'll need.      The second problem is the ribbon. I have looked around and I have found one source that seems promising. Some nice hand dyed ribbons with metallic edges. The only problem is that I figure I need around 120 yards and the ribbon starts at $0.50/yd. That's just way more than I want to pay for 6' of fringe at the moment. But at least I know it's possible, so now to finish quilting the squares. Have fun. You know I will. Darcie

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