An Overconfident Quilt

After completing two lap quilts for my two daughters for Christmas, then returning home from England with a mere four days to finish a baby quilt for a cousin's shower, I admit I was confident that I could complete a queen sized bed quilt for the wedding gift for the daughter of a very close friend whose nuptials were a whole four months away.   After all, once you finished the top, the rest was a piece of cake, right?

Not only would this be an easy and gratifying endeavor, I was going to design this one myself based on a modern quilt that caught my eye.  I would incorporate a few design additions and the brides favorite color, purple.  I figured in a month or two I'd have it back from the long arm quilter and wrapped well before May.

Then I got a reality check.

My inspiration

How had I forgotten that I hated math?  How had I not noticed that this design required a lot of math?  Nevertheless, armed with my pad of graph paper and my organized, if OCD personality, I was guided by my mentor, Mary at Quilting Seasons. 

My plan on paper

I did manage to complete the top after a month.  But when I lay it over my queen size bed there was a definite problem.  For some reason, after all my calculations, the pattern did not lay correctly.   There was not enough fabric on the top and the design was lost on the sides.  So I set it aside...for awhile.

Eventually, I pulled it out, and after returning to the shop for more advice, I began taking the top apart.  I added additional white fabric at the top and shortened the areas re-figuring things by the seat of my pants.  Forget the math!  Then I made myself pull out all my leftover fabric because, Oh that's right!  It needs a back! 

The back actually was the fun part.  I used no design book, and simplified the process by using 12"x12" blocks alternating the white with blocks of the purple that was used on the front.  (I hate to admit it, but I love the back more!)

See!  Isn't it cool?

 By this time, it is fall.  Obviously the wedding was back in May... Well, as soon as I finished the back, in a day, mind you, I hustled that baby over to the quilt shop to send it off to be long arm quilted. 

When I got it back, I suddenly remembered that I had to attach binding.  All.  The.  Way.  Around.  It.

I set aside for awhile.

The next thing I know it's January, then February.  The joke had been, "As long as they get it by the winter."  Not funny. I wanted that thing done.  Finished.  Out of my house!  Plus I felt super guilty that these patient newlyweds were going to start believing that I was not a woman of my word.  That got me moving.

At that point a most fortunate thing occurred.  I got sick.  Really sick.  I almost didn't leave my house for 3 weeks.  When I was better, but still not up to normal life, I took advantage of my home boundness, pulled out my beginner quilting books and studied how to create, attach, and blind stitch the binding.  Once I got moving, it all came back quickly, and I remembered how relaxing the blind stitch was for me.  I love sewing that stitch!  So I hunkered down and had that binding finished in 3 days!  Whoo hoo!

 

 Then I remembered.  I had planned to embroider their names and the date of their wedding on the quilt.  Shoot!  Was I supposed to do that before it was sent off to the long arm quilter?  Should I add a tag?  What were my options?  I mean I just finished the binding!  And as much as I enjoy the blind stitch, I did not want to remove the stitches I had just so lovingly put in.  I wanted this thing out of my house!!!

Ok, deep breath...Off to the internet to research my options.  Much to my relief, there were a lot of options.  However, my friend was planning to visit her daughter and son-in-law the very next weekend.  I opted for a more personal, and YES, a faster solution.  I do have to state for the record that everyone who knows me, knows how much I treasure the writings, handwritten notes and recipes from family past.  So in the honor of heirloom treasures (and speed), I signed their names, the date of their wedding and my name in my handwriting... but in purple of course!

With a sigh, I handed this completed journey to my friend on a Sunday, relieved that it was still winter, when she informed me that she wouldn't be seeing them until Easter.   So much for in time for winter!  If I hadn't wanted it out of my house so badly, perhaps I should have presented it to them in May, on their first anniversary!

Ah well, live and learn.  So I'm starting to design the wedding quilts of my grandchildren.  No, I do not have grandchildren yet.  In fact, my children are not married, but I learned my lesson about procrastination!

Landscape, Lace, and Long Ago

When I'm not working, I'm generally found in my studio...working!  Lately I've been obsessed with fiber.  My fiber guild decided to show some of our work at Saline library next week, so I've been up to my ears in fiber, fabric, and thread!  Here's a couple of examples of what I've been working on step by step......

Landscape

Did you notice the onion bag I incorporated?

Lace

Long Ago

This piece you might remember, was for the Paris Challenge.  I called it "Paris 1940's"

The Finished Baby Quilt

Thanks to Mommy-to-be, Mersadie, I now have photos of the finished baby quilt.

A Quilting Frenzy

I wanted to learn to quilt.  So I did.  Never one to go halfway, six weeks later I had completed two lap quilts for two daughters. Two weeks after that, a baby quilt was due; needing to be finished five days after arriving home from a two week holiday in the UK, Ireland, and Northern Ireland.  It too, was finished by the deadline; although admittedly I hand bound the baby creation in the most unusual places.  An hour and a half wait at the Apple store created it's own "unreality" as I hand stitched, knotted, clipped my homespun amid the latest electronics and accessories and crowds of IPhone and Apple connoisseurs! 

I could not share photos of the daughter's quilts without spoiling the surprise.  So I waited until now to display the aforementioned lap quilts...

Actually, the one on the left should be familiar.  I had posted pics of this one before deciding to do two for the girls for Christmas.

Complete with labels

Unfortunately, I forgot to shoot photos of the completed baby quilt.  So here is the finished top.  Perhaps I'll be able to post pics later.

Learning Proper Quilting...so I can break the rules later!

I started a traditional quilting class last Monday at Quilting Seasons, a darling little shop in Saline.  They claim to be friendly and they are!  The first day Mary, the owner, showed me how to create the Friendship Star block.

So I went home and finished 12 more of these blocks.  That Wednesday Mary showed me how to make the Double Nine Patch Variation block.

 So I went home and finished 12 of these blocks.  They were a bit more difficult...but I was determined!  The following Monday, I stitched my blocks into strips, then I stitched the strips together.

Then I needed to decide the colors and arrangements of my border pieces.  Of course, I had to get technical and create "flash cards" of color variations to help me decide.

Ultimately, I added one more fabric to give it a little more depth.  Here is the quilt top finished.

Wednesday, Mary helped me sandwich the top with batting and the backing material.  This week my homework is to begin quilting the layers together.  I am amazed at how quickly and easily this came together. 

I think the fun part will be naming my lap quilt.  I've also decided to incorporate my mistake into the title.  Did you find it yet?

In Stitches...

After taking a class on embroidery stitches, I've toyed around a bit on practicing what I learned.  I found that it was difficult spending a few minutes here and there to really grasp the concept of some of the more intricate stitches.  Last night, I sat for 4 hours straight practicing 4 new stitches that I had learned about a month ago.  By the time I was ready to call it a night, I felt completely confident in my ability to pick up and stitch in the future without having to refer to my instructor's example sample! 

In fact, it really caused me to yearn - for the first time- to create a hand-sewn quilt!  I think I've opened a Pandora's Box!