Life is Good (When You're Retired)

This is just a quick post to let you all know I completed my May goal for ALYOF.  :)

My goal was to make something (using scraps) for a friend of mine who is retiring after 24 years of teaching.  She was the teacher who taught next door to me during my whopping 5 years of teaching third grade.  She was a fabulous teacher, mentor, and friend.  She was always so good to let me come in and rant or bounce ideas off her.  She is the kind of person who is absolutely bursting with energy and is constantly on the move.  :)  When things were going well, or when they started to get stressful, she would just brush it aside and remind us all that "life is good."  She was ALWAYS saying that.

Of course, since I HAD to make her something, I decided to go for some embellished kitchen towels.  I traced the alligator (the school's mascot) off of one of our school t-shirts and appliqued everything onto the towels, then added the ruffles.  I was thrilled to finally have a use for this big huge strip of relatively cheap red fabric that I just can't bring myself to use in a quilt.  :)  Hopefully it works okay as a towel...

I'm not sure if my friend is going to be spending more or less time in the kitchen now that she has all that free time, and her kitchen probably isn't red, but she LOVED the towels.  :D

 I'm linking up with Shanna and Melissa over at the Lovely Year of Finishes party:

My goal setting post is HERE.  My entry was #104.


And now for my June goal.  I've been working on these super fun blocks using Geta's "Building Fun" pattern (which is totally on sale until tomorrow!).  The plan for June is to finish up the blocks and sew them into a top.  I'm crossing my fingers that the stripes aren't too busy...

P.S. Don't forget to go vote for your favorite quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival!  Voting closes on May 30th!

 You can find my quilt here:  Viewer's Choice
and here:  ROYGBIV

Squeee!!!

Hey guys!

I just saw that my quilt was nominated for Viewers Choice over at the Blogger's Quilt Festival!  I can't believe it!  Out of hundreds of entries, mine has been grouped with the best of the best.  I'm so honored.  :) :) :)
Anyway.  It's time to vote!  Obviously, vote for the ones you love most!

My regular entry in the ROYGBIV category is HERE.
The viewers choice nominations are HERE.
The rest of the quilts in the festival (they are SO AWESOME) are HERE.

Pattern Winners!

Hi Friends, I just wanted to let you know that the two winners of my "After the Storm" pattern are:

AND

Congrats to Cynthia and Bonnie!  I've sent both of you an email.  

Remember, if you didn't win, you can still buy my pattern from my Etsy shop HERE.

I am also looking into the idea of getting pattern testers as well (another way to get a free pattern - hint, hint), so let me know if that's something you are interested in.  

Thanks to everyone who entered, and especially to all the new followers!  I couldn't believe it when I checked just now - 99 followers!  You guys rock!

Presenting: After the Storm

Welcome, old friends and visitors from the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

It's time for me to share my finished "After the Storm" quilt.  I'm so excited to share its story with you.

It started back in September 2012.  I had just finished making a quilt for my in-law's 30th anniversary and it was time to start planning one for my own parents 30th.  Luckily, I had just won a FABULOUS FQ bundle from Rita at Red Pepper Quilts, and was chomping at the bit to use it.

However, choosing a quilt design to make for my mom was HARD.  She doesn't seem as intrigued by all the gorgeous modern quilts out there that I love.  I got the feeling she really liked the quilts that reminded her of the ones my grandmothers used to make.  Uber traditional and not really ME.  Plus, my mom has done her share of sewing and quilt making, so I didn't want to mess this one up. 

Finally, I came across this pin on pinterest:

SOURCE:  Pinterest

 Unfortunately, it doesn't lead anywhere!  I searched and searched for more photos like this one, but the only one I found has now been taken down.  Oh well,  it doesn't matter.  I had found my inspiration.  The pattern is called "Storm at Sea" and it is super old - very traditional, right?  All I had to do was give a little twist with color placement and walla!  Modern Traditional.  Totally something I could get on board with, and hopefully something Mom could agree with.  So I started sketching.

Then I made a few practice blocks:

And some more blocks (I got better with time.  In fact, I grew TONS as a quilter over the course of making this quilt).

 

Then I had a quilt top.

And then I made it slightly bigger.

I came across this photo today and couldn't help but share it with you.  My twins have grown SO much since this photo.  I had forgotten the days when I could do a little sewing without them getting into everything and begging me to play with them instead...

I used up most of my FQ bundle on this section, so I stopped there.  Of course, then I had the extreme fortune to win myself another bundle - this time they were Oakshott solids and they were from Lily's Quilts.  I decided to make my quilt bigger.  I discovered the Snail Trail block and was happy to find that it works perfectly with the Storm at Sea block.  So I sketched some more.

And cut up some of that beautiful, shimmery Oakshott.

At that point, I decided to put this quilt on back burner and worked on it in bits and pieces here and there.

Gradually, I built up my stack of Snail Trail blocks,

and made a bunch of diamond blocks,
By the way, all of the blocks were paper pieced and there were LOTS of pieces.  Wanna guess how many in the whole quilt?  Well, I'll tell you.  3,118.  True story.

I assembled all of the blocks into 9 sections before quilting.  This is as close as I came to a completed "top."

My plan was to quilt this in sections and put them together "Quilt As You Go" style.  The quilt top was about 114 x 123, so I wasn't about to try quilting the whole thing on my home machine.

Quilting close up from the first (center) section

I took Ann Peterson's "Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine" class and loved it!  I decided to use her "Medallion" method for attaching my quilted sections.   It was a TON of work and there was a lot of time spent in front of the TV with a pair of snips, but I think it turned out great! 

Quilting close up from the second section - see how the bottom part is not quilted yet?

I agonized for days on what type of batting to use.  I read over and over again that polyester batting is slippery and difficult to quilt with on a home machine.  BUT I happen to know that my mom loves it.  She believes that quilts should be PUFFY (which it ended up not really being because I couldn't help but quilt it heavily).  So I bit the bullet and used polyester.  GASP!  I know!  And I really didn't have any problems.  I spray basted using Ann's method and really only had one big pucker in the entire quilt!  This one, right here:

Of course, by that point I wasn't about to go back and fix that.

 I think the reason I had so much success with the poly batting was because (once again), I took Ann's advice and stitched in the ditch around ALL of my blocks before doing ANY free motion quilting.  I am a complete fan of this method from now on.

You can read more about my quilting experience HERE.

And here are a few more up close shots of the quilting:

Before diving in, I put my original sketch in a sheet protector and started doodling designs with a fine tip dry erase marker.  I ended up more or less going for the top design.

I was hoping to finish the quilt in time for my parent's 30th anniversary, but I just missed it.  Instead, it was ready by the day before Easter - only one week late.  Here's the problem, though.  I laid it outside to take photographs and this is what it looked like:
It was gorgeous and all, but it would NOT lie flat (I'm pretty sure it's because of the way I quilted the center section and then attempted to add an unquilted section to it, and still match up seams).

Especially in the corners.  No amount of tugging was going to fix this.

 Luckily, I Ann Peterson ALSO taught us how to "Block" quilts when they won't lie flat.  So I washed the quilt on a gentle cycle, patted it dry as best I could, laid out a bunch of towels on the basement floor, and proceeded to tack the quilt down flat and straight all along the edges.  Then I left it to dry overnight with a fan on it.  Now it lies MUCH flatter.  Thank you, Ann Peterson!

But still.  After quilting and washing, this thing was about 116" x 108" (a full 3.5 inches smaller than the quilt top on all four sides) and huge!  That's almost 10 feet long!  I really struggled to find a place to photograph it.  I tried hanging it off our deck, but it was still too big, and it was obviously much to big for the hubby to hold up by himself.

Luckily, the in-laws have a second story deck and lots of brothers/sisters in law to hold it up.

Wait a sec.  Who are those two cute boys supervising the quilt holding?  Surely not the same ones from that other photo...

My parents LOVED it!  I think my mom suspected and hoped I was making this for her all along, so she was pleased.  It's so great to have this finished!

For the back, I collected solids from the remnant bin at Joanns over several trips and ended up with giant log cabin. 

I love how the quilting looks on the back.  I'm a firm believer in matching bobbin thread to top thread, so most of the quilting is white and really stands out.

 And just a *FEW* more photos, just for fun.

 

I only wish I had remembered to take a photo of it on our bed before giving it to my parents.  We recently scored a HUGE King sized bed set and I was really looking forward to trying it out.  Of course, I did get to take a peek of it on my parent's King sized bed, so I guess that works.  It turns out that the quilt fits pretty well with plenty of drape on the sides, but about 10 inches more than is strictly necessary on the bottom.  Oops.  At least this way, Mom and Dad will be able to tuck it under the mattress and it won't come loose (I totally hate it when my blankets don't stay tucked in while I sleep, don't you?) - which is pretty much the main reason I made it so big.

*EDIT* 6/8/14:
I borrowed the quilt from my parents to enter it in a show and finally got those pictures on my bed!  Proof that maybe there is such a thing as a quilt that is too big?

Of course, a friend recommended that I turn the quilt sideways, and that helped.  :)

And finally, the stats.

Quilt stats:

Started: September, 2012

Finished: April 19, 2014

Fabrics:  Kona Cotton Solids, Oakshott Colorbox solids, Kona Bone, Symphony Eggshell

Finished size: 108" x 116"

Recipient:  Mom and Dad

Methods used:  Paper Piecing, Free Motion Quilting (on my home machine)

Binding:  Machine stitched to front, hand stitched to back

Approximate number of hours spent:  At LEAST 100 (near as I can figure)

Total number of fabric pieces (not including backing):  3,118

All previous progress posts for this quilt can be found HERE.

Anyway.  If you've made it this far, congratulations!  You are awesome.  Thanks for stopping by to visit my quilt!  For tons and tons more inspiration, check out the rest of the Blogger's Quilt Festival here:

I'm entering this quilt in the ROYGBIV category.

One more thing - this quilt is now a PATTERN!  I'm SO EXCITED to be releasing PDF copies in my Etsy Shop:  Always Sewin Somethin.  If you want to make one for yourself (and it doesn't have to be King size - the pattern includes 7 size options), check it out!  I'm even considering pattern testers right now.  Let me know if you're interested!

I'm also giving away TWO copies of the pattern HERE.  Giveaway is only open for a little while longer and closes at 5 pm Pacific Time on Friday May 16, 2014.  

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. This quilt is part of my Q2 Finish Along List, which can be found HERE.  Linking up: