A 25 hour quilt. Ish.

If you're looking for my Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway, please go here.

So yesterday I shared the story surrounding my friend's wedding quilt. And today I promised you the process. Now, just a warning, if you get stressed by time deadlines, you might want to avert your eyes from this post. Also, I swear I'm not normally like this, but the universe just did not smile on me making this quilt!

Sometime in January I decided I wanted to make a quilt for my friend Rachael for a wedding present. Her wedding isn't until July, so I thought I'd take my time and get to it later in the year.

On May 1st [the day I moved into my new place] I got the invitation to her bridal shower [on May 20th] and decided I wanted to give the quilt to her then so I could see her open it. I'd make it in her wedding colors of blue and gray with a pop of yellow.

May 3rd-5th I chaperoned a conference for my sister's high school newspaper, and took my blue fabric with  me to start cutting out the pieces. Except I forgot the templates. No cutting took place.

The rest of May was a whirlwind and I was incredibly busy, and barely got my sewing room up and going and my house in order. Which brings us to...

Thursday May 17th:

Finally perfected my enlarged templates [#18 Century of Progress block from Farmer's Wife Quilt]. Or so I thought.

Friday May 18th:

Cutting, cutting, cutting. Cutting all my previously cut pieces smaller. Way to go, Rebecca >.<

Ran to my LQS [30 min drive] to get whatever true blue fabrics I could find and hopefully a light gray. I ended up with a Moda Bella gray of some sort.

More cutting. Seriously. I got a blister. It was all cut by hand after I traced my templates.

Sewed together a couple of pieces and realized my templates were off, but if I sewed 3/8" seams then they were good to go. This should have been foreshadowing.

Saturday May 19th:

This is what I had at noon. I had 25 hours before I had to leave for the shower. Ready, set, go!

4 pm: Realized that I wanted it to be bigger than 3x4 blocks, and so I needed 5 more blocks.

 6 pm: Went to Joann's to buy all the blue DS Quilts prints that they had that were blue and white. Also refueled on caffeine. Note: thousands of teddy grahams gave their lives during the making of this quilt.

 7 pm: Throwing possible backing fabrics on the ground. Thinking I should have just bought a sheet for the back.

 8 pm: Stephen walked in the room and said I needed to get rid of the rockets in the bottom middle because it was the only block with colorful blue fabric [since when does he give quilt input?!]. I replaced it with the only blue and white fabric I hadn't used, a Riley Blake chevron.

9 pm: The backs looked pretty good considering I was sewing as fast as I possibly could.

6 am on Sunday: I don't really liked colored borders, and I had just enough white to make the quilt about 5 inches bigger on each side.

 7 am: Backing is pieced, and quilt is basted. Stephen even offered to help, because he had just gotten home from work. I was astounded once again, but really appreciative. Basting was [I thought] so much easier on this longer carpet! It was so smooth and nice!

11:45 am: FINISHED. 1 hour and 15 minutes early. Long enough for me to stick it in the washer and dryer, for me to take a shower, and then to take pictures of the quilt. It was a quilty miracle.

There was really only one moment when it was tragic. When I realized my basting on the back got messed up. I blame this partly on being very tired because I didn't re-check the backing when I was done basting. And then didn't realize it was bubbly/puckered until I was DONE quilting. I didn't have any option but to go with it, because I had no time left. After I washed it it got a little better, but there are still spots like this fold that makes me so sad.

Stats:

24 pieces per block x 20 blocks = 480 pieces.

That's 480 hand-traced and hand-cut pieces. Plus sewing the blocks together. Plus the borders. 500 seams.

Approx. 60x70" finished.

The majority of it [everything except those first 6 blocks] was done over a 25 hour period. I was awake a total of 32 hours from Saturday morning to Sunday evening.

After the shower, I went home and slept for 14 hours.

*Linked up with Quilt Story

Bloggers' Quilt Festival!

Today I'm sharing the story surrounding my Bloggers' Quilt Festival quilt. It's a long post, but bursting with emotion for me to write. For information on the process of the quilt, come back tomorrow :)

 

I met my friend Rachael in 2nd grade. I had just moved to Florida and was living an hour away from my school while my family's house was being finished. In elementary school we were best friends: in the same Girl Scout troop, multiple classes together, on a boys soccer team together, and two of the four girls in Gifted.

And then I found out I was moving to Virginia. We shared a "Best Friends" butterfly necklace, and promised we'd stay friends forever. I think we did a pretty good job of staying in touch for 11 year-olds...I'd sleep over at her house when my family visited Florida and we wrote letters occasionally. But I also made new best friends, and loved my time in Virginia.

Then we found out we were moving back to Florida in time for me to enter high school. I had missed those all-important middle school years where strong friendships are formed. I was even more nervous moving back to a place I had lived before.

But then...

We were friends again! We slipped right back into our friendship! Now we had a more mature relationship; not spending the night at each other's houses, but talking about life and our undying love for coffee. We were in classes together again, played club soccer and high school soccer together, were high school captains together one season, volunteered with Girl Scouts together, and took a very memorable camping trip one weekend with a million little kids. She was the only person I let interview me after I was robbed at gunpoint at Arby's, and her mom was my character reference for pretty much every job/college I applied to.

I remember freshman year when she started dating James. As only high schoolers who couldn't drive could "date". They actually met when she was in 8th grade and he was in 9th. He went to a school down the road, but I remember how he used to drive over and see her after school while we were waiting for soccer practice to start.

And then she did something that I think makes her one of the smartest and wisest high school girls on the planet. They split up so she could enjoy high school without the pressures of a boyfriend. She didn't date anyone else, but I honestly didn't give James a second thought after that. And then when we went to college he was back in her life and the two of them could enjoy being adults and forming a special bond. I knew then that he was special.

She graduated college a semester early, got offered a teaching job a day after graduation, and now teach high schoolers all about literature and writing, which is a passion of hers. James graduated college and got a great job as a finance manager and then proposed. She has so many friends and has been a bridesmaid so many times and now she gets to be the center of attention. She gets to be the beautiful bride.

And Rachael, you will be beautiful. You're one of the most beautiful people I've ever met. In spirit and character just as much as in physical looks. You take amazing photos [especially in South Africa!], have been all over the world on mission trips, drink as much coffee as me, and never fail to make me laugh when we meet at our favorite brunch place and you get something so healthy while I have a small mountain of bacon. You're the reason I like turkey and tomato sandwiches and are the prime example of a strong, self-assured woman.

Dear Rachael,

Quilts have traditionally been given as wedding presents for centuries. So why mess with a good thing, right?! The quilts of the past were hand-stitched bundles of love and well wishes. The quilt I made wasn't hand-stitched in that way, but every moment spent on this quilt was a moment that I was pouring wishes of love and joy and happiness into your upcoming marriage. I hope this quilt brings you comfort for years to come and serves as a reminder of the joining of your new family.

Love, Rebecca

Fall 2006

Rachael must have a secret for non-puffy eyes after crying. Must get that...

*I gave Rachael her quilt at her bridal shower yesterday. I cried immediately upon her opening it. She cried. My mom cried. Her mom cried. A couple other people cried. It was the most beautiful quilty moment that I've ever had :)

-Linked with SewHappyGeek

Work hard, play hard

Today is the last day of the giveaway...you have until midnight to enter! :)

Today is my first day of planned sewing in my new place. Two weeks after moving in. Two weeks of just playing with all my toys, and no turning my machine on. I am so excited.

One of the projects to be worked on?

Fabrics: Children at Play at the top [the top didn't quite fit], Secret Garden, Metro Living, a Lila Tueller print but I don't know what collection, and Modern Meadow

As you can see, these will be large blocks. I don't even know how large because I'm being fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants-wild with measurements. I tend to like blocks to be more like 8 inches finished, since I like many blocks within a quilt. So worst comes to worst, I'll make these 4 large and put them on the back of the quilt or something :)

Have you been a Farmer's Wife?

Afternoon, all!

I'm about to rush off and make mini first aid kits at my Girl Scout meeting today [inside Easter eggs, no less...I'm all about using what I have on hand], but I wanted to drop a quick note.

Sunni at Love Affair with my Brother has a linky party up [with prizes!] for you to link up projects that have been made with Farmer's Wife blocks. So if you have any of those, head on over!

Some of my favorite things have been made with these blocks. Ok, with one block in particular. It's not my fault! The Century of Progress block is just so fabulous!

For your viewing pleasure:

#2 Autumn Tints

#18 Century of Progress

#18 Century of Progress

#77 Seasons

#18 Century of Progress

A legit Friday finish, just in time!

Untitled, a photo by Sew Festive on Flickr.

Whew, I sewed all day so that I can get my package out to my Savvy Seasons partner tomorrow. I'll show the rest of the package another day, but this is the main event.

It started as a drawing with my favorite [right now, at least] Farmer's Wife block, #18, Century of Progress. It then progressed to over 200 pieces that were traced out and cut out with scissors.

I chain pieced my heart out.

I went back and forth on how to press my seams. From past experience with this block [where I pressed my seams open, as I typically do] I had so much bulk in the center. So I started pressing to one side. But that wasn't working either. You can see the differences in pressing really well from the back. 

I had some piecing issues, so some of the blocks in this pillow were sewn 3 times. My template-tracing and scissor-cutting were not precise, and precision is key when you have 200+ pieces. I ended up having to pin the heck out of the triangles when sewing together, and as you can see, my points are still not perfect where the diamonds meet. Next time!

When it came to the quilting, I would have liked some time to mull over what to do, but time was not a luxury I had, and so I decided on some tiny stippling in the white sections. I don't know about you guys but I found that when I was doing tiny stippling I also ended up making my stitches tiny. It was impossible for me to lengthen my stitches while still keeping my loops small. Funny how the brain works, huh?

Oh, and then this happened:

Yeah, I have no clue what happened. All of a sudden I had a bent needle. Thank goodness I had just bought a package of needles.And thank goodness it just bent, and didn't break off!

So here we have it! A completed 18" pillow.

I love it in all its imperfections. I love that I would have never made this for myself, but am always pushed to do complex things for other people in swaps. And I love that I finished at 730 pm, in the dark, and had to take a picture in my bathroom in front of my shower because it gets the best nighttime light in that room.

Go check out all the other Friday finishes! I think those are the best kind of finishes, because it means sewing time during the week, and I always need some "me" time during the mad rush of the week.

***Does anyone know how to keep photos from publishing on Blogger if I upload them from Flickr to Blogger on my phone? Is there any way to upload them to a post that's a draft? And to upload them all to the same post? See, the Internet isn't easy for us young folks either!

WIP Wednesday #3!

This is my last WIP Wednesday before the big day [of the craft fair] and I have a personal deadline of having all the sewing done [with the exception of coaster sets and coffee cozies] by Thursday.

That being said, and this being written Tuesday night, my Wednesday is going to be pretty busy.

Finishes:

-Merry Christmoose pillow [this took some thinking on my feet. But that's a story for another day!

-Century of Progress pillow

-A Very Merry Grinchmas quilt

-Embroidery hoop ornaments

In progress:

-SuperSwoon tree skirt [its 45" square!] - just got the additional fabric in the mail Monday, pieced the top and I hope to finish piecing a back here in the next hour or so and then quilt it and bind it this afternoon

-Retro Christmas table runner - this is really just because I've sort of lost interest in this [I forgot to put my middle blocks on point, so that kind of bugs me now]

-Linen tree skirt - I don't think this will get done in time for the craft fair, which I'm ok with, but if I do have extra time then I''ll see what I can do to finish it


So I'd best hop to it!

By the way, this is the 1st year anniversary of WIP Wednesday over at Lee's, so go check out the other links. Thanks for a year's worth of kicking our butts in gear!