Big Finish

 After Mary Huey came to speak to the guild she brought up some amazing points.  Use the fabric you have bought.  She recently helped a man whose wife passed away sell all her quilting/sewing supplies.  She mentioned how hard it was to see all this amazing stuff sell for much less than it was worth.  She also in the same manner mentioned to finish the UFO by finishing them or realizing you won't finish it and change those to something you will finish.  The last point she mentioned that really stuck with me is sew a little everyday.  Your sewing skills will improve and you will be amazing with even a few minutes everyday how much you will get done.  Now I would completely be lying if I said I have been sewing everyday but I have been sewing much more often.  With this happening I thought I might be able to work on some big finishes this year. 

This quilt is a gift for a co worker.  He spent 20 years, before working at IU, with the Army.  Then it was over 20 years at IU.  I have worked with him for about 7 years.  I picked out the fabrics first.  Red, white and blue seems like the obvious choice.  I looked at probably 10 different patterns before I found what seems like the perfect one.  Finding this pattern was just one of the very lucky things that sometimes happen.  I was getting together to sew with a few of my favorite quilting friends and one of them a just bought the pattern.  I really thought this one had a great look right away.  The very next day I was at Quilts Plus buying this pattern and wonderful ruler.  You can make templates for the pattern but the ruler certainly made this quite a bit easier.  This quilt goes together very quickly and I certainly think I will be using this pattern again. 


After working with red, white and blue for a bit I got bored with the colors.  While I'm sure the quilt would have been nice with just those colors something was missing for me.  As I thought about it this quilt needed more color.  Orange was an easy choice.  It is one of my favorite colors to put in a quilt and it is easy to have red smoothly move towards orange.  Green and purple did the same with blue and the addition of these colors really help this quilt pop.  Not being one who follows directions well, I did end up changing the way I made this quilt.  The pattern calls for a jelly roll and I already had fat quarters.  Instead of cutting those fat quarters into 2 1/2 inch strips I just cut them into strips 1 inch to 2 1/2 inches wide. 

Once I had the top completed I called (maybe texted)  my friend Steph.  I asked if she would teach me to use her long arm machine.  She agreed and I am so excited I had the chance to use it.  One night I came over and practiced and the next time it was onto the quilt.  I had tons of fun and really can see why using a long arm machine for quilting is so nice.  While that kind of machine is way outside my budget, I really do appreciate Steph letting me try it out and I may even be back quilting some charity quilts soon.

Oh you should also take a look at this very fun back.  He likes Superman, news and crosswords.  That white spot will soon get a label.

 

I do love the way this quilt turned out and soon enough I will be handing it off.  Here's to hoping he will like it.

Happy Quilting

Cathy