Finally!!!!
Much to the happiness of Clint and the kids I am a wife and a mother again. I have taken the past two weeks to quilt this quilt and it's taken it's toll on me. I love how it turned out, it's just hard to try and sneak in my own quilts when I have people waiting on me for their quilts. But, I have to be creative because it's in my blood and I want to make my own things, I just have to block out days (weeks in this case) on my calendar for me! That's not selfish is it?
Let me just walk you through this quilt. I drew it from graph paper - didn't have measurements - made a lot of blocks twice. Then, when it was finally pieced - I had to take it off the machine mid-quilting to fix some unsightly errors! Chaos, if you ask me. I am grateful to Clint for pointing out the final error in the quilt and telling me that it wasn't acceptable - it pushed me to fix it and I am so glad I did! When you work on a quilt for over 100 hours (35 hours piecing, 65 hours quilting roughly), you better like the end product and not have any regrets!
I can tell you that I can see and point out every single imperfection of my quilt, but I won't point them out because when it's all said and done, once you take the quilt off the frames, it looks good and your eyes see the whole quilt, not just the 18 inches you have been working on for hours.
I wanted this quilt to look like it had some iron work in it. The swirls were an excellent match for the design because they matched my template designs for the blocks. In case you are wondering, I drew up my own templates. The templates for the blocks had the base of the daisy flower with the swirls going into hearts around them.
The center block is my daisy flower pot. I love it! So simple, yet so elegant. The quilting just balances out the whole quilt, it really turned out better than I could have imagined.
I was a little nervous just using super plain fabric and only three colors, but the quilting took over and put the print right onto the fabric.
I seriously keep looking at it! I have to admit I cried a few tears last night at 2:30 am when I put in the last stitch, took the quilt off the frames and stared at it. It really has been a rough couple of weeks, maybe because I was a little stressed? :) but having this quilt done and to know that it is mine makes me so happy. I have created an heirloom quilt that can be passed on to my family when I am gone. I told Lili that she can have it when she is 60 because I won't give it up until I am 85 and dying. She was a little excited at first, but then realized it's going to be a while.
Here's the back! And I love it just as much as the front. I used 108" wide cream cotton sateen and it looks fabulous. This side looks like a whole cloth quilt and could easily pass for one. I am sad I have to put a label and sleeve on it because I won't be able to use both sides, but that's okay. To the quilt show it goes!
I used a wool batting and hobbs 80/20 batting for this quilt. It gave it a perfect loft for how much pebbling I did and the tension is perfect! The thread on the back of the quilt looks as good as the front. I love my A-1 longarm!!!
So, what's left? Purple binding, sleeve and label! I am considering hiring out because I hate to hand bind, but can't justify machine binding on this quilt!
Well, Happy Easter everyone! The kids had a fun little Easter Egg Hunt today. I loved it! I hope your weekend is wonderful and you eat some ham and funeral potatoes! That's what we are having tomorrow! Yeah!!!
Let me just walk you through this quilt. I drew it from graph paper - didn't have measurements - made a lot of blocks twice. Then, when it was finally pieced - I had to take it off the machine mid-quilting to fix some unsightly errors! Chaos, if you ask me. I am grateful to Clint for pointing out the final error in the quilt and telling me that it wasn't acceptable - it pushed me to fix it and I am so glad I did! When you work on a quilt for over 100 hours (35 hours piecing, 65 hours quilting roughly), you better like the end product and not have any regrets!
I can tell you that I can see and point out every single imperfection of my quilt, but I won't point them out because when it's all said and done, once you take the quilt off the frames, it looks good and your eyes see the whole quilt, not just the 18 inches you have been working on for hours.
I wanted this quilt to look like it had some iron work in it. The swirls were an excellent match for the design because they matched my template designs for the blocks. In case you are wondering, I drew up my own templates. The templates for the blocks had the base of the daisy flower with the swirls going into hearts around them.
The center block is my daisy flower pot. I love it! So simple, yet so elegant. The quilting just balances out the whole quilt, it really turned out better than I could have imagined.
I was a little nervous just using super plain fabric and only three colors, but the quilting took over and put the print right onto the fabric.
I seriously keep looking at it! I have to admit I cried a few tears last night at 2:30 am when I put in the last stitch, took the quilt off the frames and stared at it. It really has been a rough couple of weeks, maybe because I was a little stressed? :) but having this quilt done and to know that it is mine makes me so happy. I have created an heirloom quilt that can be passed on to my family when I am gone. I told Lili that she can have it when she is 60 because I won't give it up until I am 85 and dying. She was a little excited at first, but then realized it's going to be a while.
Here's the back! And I love it just as much as the front. I used 108" wide cream cotton sateen and it looks fabulous. This side looks like a whole cloth quilt and could easily pass for one. I am sad I have to put a label and sleeve on it because I won't be able to use both sides, but that's okay. To the quilt show it goes!
I used a wool batting and hobbs 80/20 batting for this quilt. It gave it a perfect loft for how much pebbling I did and the tension is perfect! The thread on the back of the quilt looks as good as the front. I love my A-1 longarm!!!
So, what's left? Purple binding, sleeve and label! I am considering hiring out because I hate to hand bind, but can't justify machine binding on this quilt!
Well, Happy Easter everyone! The kids had a fun little Easter Egg Hunt today. I loved it! I hope your weekend is wonderful and you eat some ham and funeral potatoes! That's what we are having tomorrow! Yeah!!!
