An Old Wedding Quilt Finish -- Finally!

I'm sure my friend Pattie thought this day would never come.  I was beginning to wonder, myself.   The restoration of the Old Wedding Quilt is complete and it has been delivered.  Pattie is "over the moon" about it.  

Looking back at our electronic conversations it was January of 2015 when she showed me the quilt and asked for advice.   I took it home with me to see what I could figure out.  It was seven months before I even had a chance to look at it.  In case you don't remember this is what it looked like .....

 .....and my first blog post about this project describes the condition.  I think the most fun part of this entire thing was taking it apart.  I had never done that with an old quilt, and it was so cool.  (Yes, my favorite part of home remodeling projects is the demolition!)  Between finishing the top and starting to quilt it, I had to set it aside again for a while, but I got back to it, anxious to see it finished.  

There wasn't enough original fabric in good shape to use for the binding, so I ordered several shades from the Fat Quarter Shop hoping one of them would be at least close enough to the right color so I could use it.   Wonder of wonders!  One of them was a perfect match.

It could not have been a better match!

I used clip art and hand-embroidery to make the label.  Isn't it fun?  That's supposed to be the happy couple in 1963 and Pattie in 1967.  

Actually these pictures are a little better.

And now, for the rest of the story.

Pattie's mother, Irene Mayfair, was set up on a blind date with a young sailor named Harlon Doyle by her best friend and his best friend.  After their first date Irene told her best friend that she was going to marry that man!  And she did.  On July 3, 1963 in a courthouse in Florida.  They traveled to Harlon's hometown for their first Thanksgiving as a married couple and were presented with the quilt by Irene's new mother-in-law, Effie Doyle.

Pattie came along in 1967 and as she was growing up she took over the quilt as her own.   In her words,  " I sort of took it over growing up.  It was my favorite and one of the blankets I wanted to wrap up in if I was sick.  It went to the beach as a beach blanket, and was used for picnics over the years ... until it started coming apart, and I just put it up so it wouldn't deteriorate completely."

I am so privileged to have been a part of this quilt's restoration.  I hope as it hangs in Pattie's home it brings as much comfort to her as it did when she was growing up.  I know it will bring back many precious memories every time she looks at it.

NOTE - if you haven't seen previous posts on the progress of this quilt check them out here -

Aug 29, 2016 -- http://sewthisismyblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/up-next-real-challenge.html

Sept 1, 2016 -- http://sewthisismyblog.blogspot.com/2016/09/old-wedding-quilt-progress.html

Sept 29, 2016 -- http://sewthisismyblog.blogspot.com/2016/09/old-wedding-quilt-its-coming-along.html

Jan 8, 2017 -- http://sewthisismyblog.blogspot.com/2017/01/where-to-start.html

Feb 5, 2017 -- http://sewthisismyblog.blogspot.com/2017/02/all-kinds-of-progress.html

Mar 7, 2017 -- http://sewthisismyblog.blogspot.com/2017/03/old-wedding-quilt-update.html

Triforce Quilt

I have been wanting to write about this quilt since I started it, but I didn't want a certain someone to see it.  That's been happening a lot this past year.  Not only secret quilts, but now that I think of it, purple quilts, too.   Thank goodness for friends throwing purple scraps my way once in a while, otherwise I would never be able to make quilts for all the people whose favorite color is purple.  I've been wanting to make this quilt for a long time.  I actually bought the pattern in December, 2013 from Eric the Quilter's etsy shop.  So getting around to it took over three and a half years, but once I started I finished in less than 3 months.  

 The original plan was to make a wall-hanging, and I had the piecing for that pretty much finished in a couple of weeks.

Then, though, I decided to make it at least a throw size, and maybe even a twin.  That meant ripping out all those setting triangles on the bottom edge.  What fun!

I sewed and sewed, and before I knew it the top was quite a bit longer.  I still wasn't happy though because it looked too long and skinny to me.  To add to the width I would have to rip out all those setting triangles along the sides.  NO. WAY!   

How about adding some borders?  I still had plenty of purple left.

I've never worked with a quilt that had all bias edges so I stay-stitched it first to keep it from stretching   My favorite marking tool for darks really came in handy!  Love my Fons & Porter Mechanical Pencil with White Lead!

Marking and trimming made it a lot easier to add the borders.

From this point on it should have been super easy.  Hmmm, not so much.  I wanted so much for all the squares in the borders to look balanced that I made it fit and ended up with ripply borders.

I figured if I quilted a little heavier in the borders, the fullness might "quilt out" though.  Right?  No.  Wrong again.  I wanted this done!  I even took it with me on vacation and set up my own personal sewing area so I could work on it when I got tired of the pool and the beach.

I quilted two sides and wasn't happy, so I ripped it all that quilting out.  Then, I actually took the borders off.  I've never done that before on a quilt that was mostly quilted.  

I put my "Jack the Seam Ripper" to good use!  If you need a new ripper or a really special one for a gift, check his out.  They are great!

So, I removed at least two inches from each side, reattached it, got it quilted, and finally got to my favorite part - binding!

By the way, isn't that another great backing fabric?  It's from the "Mostly Manor" collection by Victoria Findlay Wolfe.  I bought it from my fave Fat Quarter Shop.

My friend, Penny, made another really beautiful label for me using a downloaded pattern of the Triforce I had purchased online.   I love that I can find just about anything I want online!  (Not sure Hubby feels the same way about my online shopping.....)

So, it's quilted, and bound .....

..... and delivered.  I feel pretty confident that this will be a much-loved quilt.  I sure put love into it!


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June Goal for ALYoF

I am so disappointed that I didn't make my May goal, but happy that I at least made a great deal of progress with it.  I think I would have finished if I hadn't ended up spending almost two weeks in bed with a horrible sinus/ear infection.  No matter -- I'm setting another A Lovely Year of Finishes goal for June and will get back to the May goal soon.

I need to make a baby quilt before the end of the month.  I committed to it in March, but put it off until May knowing I would be making an easy pattern.   Who needs much more than a month for a simple baby quilt?   

The baby's room is in colors from this decor .....

..... so I ordered these fabrics (yes, in March) from the Fat Quarter Shop.

I'm going to use this tutorial by Lydia at Dream Patch for a chevron quilt with no triangles  ---  http://www.dreampatch.com.au/2013/11/chevron-pattern-with-no-triangles-free.html#.VXOPrmCI34G http://www.dreampatch.com.au/2013/11/chevron-pattern-with-no-triangles-free.html#.VXOPrmCI34G

Even if my broken arm needs a few more weeks to heal I still think this is doable.  Wish me luck!

I'm linking up with ALYoF June Goal Setting Party.

Sew My Stash 2015

Not only is this going to be the year of finishing UFO's it is also going to be the year of using my stash.  I am joining the fun at Project: Leasa and planning to Sew My Stash this year.   (I think I need to start getting up earlier in the morning if I'm going to get all this sewing done.

First things first.  I have to show you my stash.  Gulp!  These are the cabinets in my sewing room in which I keep my stash.  Looks are deceiving, though, not every one of those cabinets has fabric in it.

I have quite a few batiks.

Actually, looks ARE deceiving.  There are two stacks on that shelf, the stack in the front and the stack in the back.

These are batiks too, just larger pieces.

The Black & Whites are normally in nice neat stacks but I have been digging through them lately, so they are just in a pile now.

I have an awful lot of novelty prints and brights.  Yes, stacks in front of stacks again.

Christmas prints and other holiday prints don't take up too much space.

Five shelves are organized by color and then there is a shelf for Asian prints, floral prints, and patriotic fabrics.

This shelf is just stacks and bundles I bought not knowing what I wanted to do with, so they just sit there ......... waiting.  I see a stack of backings I bought for baby quilts there, too.

This shelf is just ..... well ..... I'm not sure what.  Odds and ends, I guess.  There are some Loony Tunes fabrics, a few things I ordered from the Fat Quarter Shop and, Valentines fabric, super-hero stuff, and fabric from Uganda.  Yes, that's odds and ends, for sure.

These fabrics are sitting on my cutting table, pillowcase fabrics and solids.  I guess I ran out of space in the cabinets.

Now that I've taken all these photos, I realize I have a lot more stash than I thought.  Even if I pull a project once a month I won't make a dent in it. Maybe instead of getting up earlier I should figure out how to get by with no sleep at all.

It's In The Mail

I just fell in love with this fabric so I had to make a matching pillowcase for Aemarys's quilt before I put it into the mail to her.

It's from the "Keep it Sassy" line by Moda and comes in several other colors.  The Cotton Candy pink is from the tried and true Kona Solids which I usually buy from The Fat Quarter Shop.  You can get just about any color you want in that line!

Can you believe I even found a purple and pink dotted note card to include?  

I put it into a big plastic storage bag, then packaged it and shipped it out earlier this week.  She might even be sleeping under it tonight.  

October Goals -- UFO's

I have started enough new projects this year.  My list of UFO's has never been as long as it is now, and if I don't get some finishes soon it will be even longer by the time the new year rolls around.  I started a new project in April and told you about it in this post.  I finally got back to work on it recently and the goal is to finish it this month.  

I wanted the blocks to be bright and had a lot of fun choosing fabrics from my stash. 

Pink was the main color for Aemarys's baby quilt in 2005 so decided to use a lot of pink in this quilt too.   After making some of the blocks I noticed a few of the fabrics I had used in her baby quilt, so I went searching for more of them in my stash and was able to find a lot.  Here's her baby quilt - 

Now her quilts are linked, and I'm hoping she notices.  

I hadn't bought very much of the cotton candy pink, but after playing with several different ideas for the borders I thought it might work for the border. 

I really liked the third choice the best because the blocks look like they were floating, so I got online and ordered more yardage from The Fat Quarter Shop and had it within just a few days.  I just love shopping online!

Of course by then I had already changed my mind and went with the second option because I thought Aemarys would like it better.  (Not only that - my quilting would not show up as well on the print!)  So now I have enough pink in my stash for another little girl quilt!

Hmmmm, or maybe some matching pillowcases........