Remember the blue squares baby quilt? I knew as soon as I finished it that I wanted to make a full-sized version at some point, and that point came sooner than later when my brother Totem (not his real name)(but close enough) laid it on THICK that he was due a quilt. He was less than impressed when he found out I had made a quilt for our nephew (post pending), and a quilt for Sherry, WHO ISN’T EVEN RELATED TO US, as he was quick to note.
Speaking of Sherry, did I tell you the Germ was nuts? It was my 40th birthday ten days ago and the Germ arranged for several of my friends, Sherry included, AND my parents to come and visit me in Munich to celebrate. File under things I did not see coming. At all.
Anyway, with my parents came an empty suitcase, in which Totem’s quilt was expected to make a return journey to Toronto. No pressure or anything, considering I had the thing about half quilted and was on a break because quilting sucks.
I started working on this quilt in November and it went through several iterations on my design wall until I settled on the final grid. Totem initially wanted a quilt in black/white/red, which is one of my least favourite colour combinations ever. Since I don’t have many reds in my stash, and certainly not enough of a variety to form a gradient, I suggested using blues instead, and he was down with the plan (did I just age myself there? I *am* forty).
I started with blacks and greys and moved on to creams and whites, followed by light blues and dark blues. I finished piecing the top on Christmas eve, and did the back in the new year, which was a scaled up grid going from black to white using the fabrics from the top. Here’s a tip from me to you – make your big squares no bigger than your biggest square ruler. File that one under do as I say, not as I do. It took AGES to measure and cut the back.
The quilting is some not-so-straight straight-line quilting, about a quarter-inch on either side of the seam line (about only because I don’t have a quarter-inch walking foot yet)(not-so-straight because that quilt is HEAVY).
I did the quilting in one direction a couple of weeks ago, before the birthday excitement befell me, and finished off the other direction early last week when I realized the deadline was looming. I spent the rest of the week binding, finishing that off on a long car ride this past Friday. For the binding I used a light blue polka-dot fabric, which I didn’t actually use in the quilt but that goes well with all of the fabrics I did use.
You guys? I’m in love with this quilt, which means that at some point in my future I’m probably going to make another one just like it for me!
Use it well, Totem – Love you!
Totem
Sherry
Sandy H
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