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I can't believe I survived a year of New Projects with Barbara's 2013 NewFo Challenge! I went in thinking not only would I start and finish twelve projects, but I would also finish a few UFO's I just happened to have on hand. I was thinking that it was a real disaster, but actually, when I looked back over my list of finished projects, I did okay. Take a look.
January Project -- Gavin's Quilt -- FINISHED!
February Project -- Neutrals Challenge -- FINISHED!
March Project -- Pillowcases -- FINISHED!
April Project -- Tile Tango -- FINISHED!
May Project -- Pink Stars -- FINISHED!
June Project -- A Real Disaster -- And I STILL don't know what to do with this one!!!
July Project -- Jason's Quilt -- FINISHED!
August Project -- Zelda quilt for Josh -- Up Next!!!!
September Project -- Baby Quilt -- FINISHED!
October Project -- Aidan's Alabama Quilt -- Sooooooo Close!!!!!
November Project -- Marmalade Squares -- FINISHED!
December Project -- A Christmas Surprise -- Ooops! You didn't think there was a December project did you! Well, I thought it would be something I could quickly throw together along with all those last minute Christmas preparations, hand-quilt it in the car on the way to St. Louis, and give it to someone as a real surprise for Christmas. Well, that didn't happen. But I'll give you a peek (because I do still want to finish it!)
With that, I will link up with Barbara's Linky Party over at Cat Patches for my final 2013 NewFo Challenge. It's been a lot of fun. I have thoroughly enjoyed it.
You may remember that in this post I was just starting on a special quilt for my nephew, Jason. I really wanted to get it finished this year since it has been on my mind for a long (very long) time.
I bought a yellow polished cotton and planned to use the same green that I used in Ashley's quilt. But I found the perfect Kona solid for the alternate blocks and went with that instead.
I have been sewing almost my entire life, but I still forget the basics sometimes. When you have a sample block you really need to look at it once in a while! I made all the side segments for all the blocks and they were perfect.
And then I made all the center segments and they were perfect -- I thought. You can see though, that I did not look at my sample block!! When making complicated blocks simply turning a segment the wrong way makes them all turn out backwards. Needless to say I did a LOT of "reverse sewing" that day.
Ahhhh, that's better!
After all that ripping and re-sewing I finally got the blocks finished and put together.
The border presented its own challenges. I wanted to use all the embroidery from the original quilt top, but it was originally in the corners, and I didn't want to cut through that.
The best thing to do would be simple "Y" seams, right?
Uh Oh! Not so fast. I had to put an underlining behind the old embroidered sections, stitch the corners, figure out the exact sizes of the middle sections, and get the whole thing put together with the final border.
There were a few places where someone forgot to stitch with embroidery thread. At first I thought I would stitch them myself, but then decided to leave it as is. That's part of what makes it special, after all.
Finally, the quilt was finished. Oh, Happy Day!!
I even used the last of the stitched blocks on the back!
The best part of this entire endeavor was giving the quilt to my nephew, Jason, on Christmas Eve. A very special quilt for a very special young man.
