Grateful Dead Chaos Patchwork Curtains

Once upon a time, I said my bathroom curtains were the "grooviest curtains I ever saw."  Well, I just outdid myself.  I created an even groovier set of curtains!  It is almost bittersweet that the project is finally done.  I had the best time making them over the past seven months.  I am just tickled pink with how they turned out.

Fun and happy curtains to match the happy yellow room.

Yup.  Seven months!  It was a long meandering project.  A fun one, but not a fast one!  Technically I can trace its roots back a decade.  At a sewing retreat in Livingston, my mom suggested I look into foundation paper piecing.  She thought it would be up my alley.  At that point, I was deeply in denial about becoming a "quilter" and just wanted to make my dresses.   I didn't follow up on the suggestion.

There are 132 pieces to each bear block.  The tiniest is the notch in the bear's nose.    

Ten years go by.  After dabbling in some patchwork, I finally looked up some paper-pieced designs last fall. My online searches led me to a free pattern from Pitcher's Boutique for a Grateful Dead dancing/marching bear.  It looked CRAZY complicated to me, but also CRAZY COOL.  So, I figured I'd try to make one.  Why not!?  Sewing harder is one of my goals.

A partially constructed bear.  The purple bear was my first one.

I almost instantly realized that I was outta my league tackling such an ambitious pattern with zero experience.  I needed to step back and learn some basics.  So I returned to Google where I located a simple, straightforward house paper piece pattern and tutorial.  After making one of those and wrapping my mind around the process, I  picked the Jerry bear pattern back up.

Last week I tacked this to the wall in my sewing room.  I don't have plans for it.  It was strictly to learn the process.  I thought about throwing it away, but decided to hang it up instead.

Ohmygosh!  Foundation paper piecing is SO MUCH FUN.  I love it.  LOVE IT.  It is like color-by-number, but for sewing.  Ohmygosh!  Added bonus for me:  There is virtually no math involved--just slap a piece on the paper and sew along the printed line.  It allows me an undreamed level of precision on points and tiny pieces.  It is wild stuff.  My mom sure knows me.  It is right up my alley, indeed.

Cocktails and paper piecing!  Matt often keeps me company in my sewing room while I work.  Why not enjoy a little happy hour while we're at it?

Initially, I suggested incorporating the finished bear block into a new Cool Shirt for Matt.  Matt proposed making additional bears to fill out the rest of the shirt.  It was funny how it went from wondering if it was even possible to make one...to making multiples!  The first bear was so satisfying that I was eager to make more though and soon I had a growing rainbow of bears--red, green, yellow, purple, orange, blue.  

While hanging out with me in the sewing room, Matt ripped the paper backing off the finished bears so I could keep sewing.  He's a tremendously supportive and helpful guy.  I am so grateful for that.

...at which point we decided that curtains for the spare room were an actual need whereas another shirt for Matt really wasn't.  So, the project took a fabulous left turn and I started drafting a plan for deady bear curtains instead.  As I said, it was a meandering project.

Ginger also likes to hang out with me in the sewing studio.  What can I say?  It is just a cool place to be.  Ginger enjoys finding novel places to chillax....like the Mt. Scrapmore bin.  This project did wonders for helping me work down my scrap pile.

My scrap bin was still overflowing with bright colorful bits, even after making the Technicolor Party Coat.  I'd always wanted to try some "crazy quilt" style patchwork.  All the quilts I remember from my childhood were crazy quilts.  So that's what I did to frame the deady bears and build the fabric to the size needed for my windows.  I've subsequently learned that what I've been doing might best be described as "crumb" patchwork.  The pieces are pretty teeny--even as small as 1-inch square, say.  That might seem crazy, but I find it terribly satisfying.  Plus, it looks SO COOL.  The random nature of the process appeals to me greatly.  I started calling it chaos quilting.  :)

Curtain One.  

I'd grab a crumb/scrap and sew it to another crumb/scrap that was about the same size.  Then I'd put two of those together.  Then I'd find a bigger scrap to add on to that (and on and so forth) until I got to the size I wanted.  I made a bunch of 5.5 inch patchwork blocks and stitched them together for the row beneath the bear blocks, say.  Between the bears, I needed a 6x12 inch patchwork block.  My crumb technique definitely improved over the months of practice.  I can tell which curtain came first (more squares and larger pieces) and which curtain I made second (a lot of smaller and more irregularly shaped pieces).  Patchwork is so cool!  Combining the paper piecing AND the patchwork is double cool!

Curtain Two.

The backing material is just plain black from the bolt of fabric I got from the Cleaves estate.  I am confident David would have loved these curtains, too.  He valued my sewing a lot, as well as the Grateful Dead scene.  I cut a piece of black the same size as the patchwork and sewed them right sides together, leaving a little gap for turning.  I flipped it right-side out and top-stitched the edges.  The last step was folding over a two-inch sleeve at the top for the curtain rod.  Once the patchwork was done (sewing harder) the actual curtain construction was a snap.  

They sure are groovy, if I do say so myself.

We hung the curtains in the spare room just in time for it to be occupied by a stream of houseguests--my pal Hannah, my sister and niece, and then my mom.  I enjoyed the process and I love the final product.  Huzzah for a sewing harder success story! 

When illuminated by the bright light of day the curtains remind me of stained glass.  That is an unexpected bonus that delights me to no end.  It also really highlights how many seams there are in this piece.  Soooooooooo maaaaaaany pieces!