I heard from Debra and she's received my 9-patch blocks. In fact in her latest posting, I can see them in the stack with the others she received. I can't wait to see the quilt when she gets it all together. I can't imagine how she'll combine all the colors. Look at the variety of colors she has received.
I don't think I've told you about the quilt I've been working on for my daughter. She's very particular, so she has picked out every single fabric that is going to be used in her quilt. And that's fine with me. We live about 45 minutes apart, and both have our responsibilities, so it's difficult to get together. She always has to come to my house because we're shopping my stash. And since I started this quilt for her, I told her she definitely has to know how much I love her. Because she has had me step outside my comfort zone.
A little background is in order. I have twin daughters. They'll turn 34 years old the 25th of this month. This daughter (daughter #1 since she was first-born) never asks for anything and is super independent. And she's a very private person (unlike me and daughter #2). Before I left Germany in June 2008, daughter #1 said she had found a quilt she would like me to make for her. To say I was ecstatic would be an understatement. I would LOVE to do something for her! Yes! So I said "Sure, send me a picture of what you want." And what does she send me? A calendar quilt wall-hanging. But she didn't want it as a wall-hanging. She wants it as a lap quilt. Well, I had taken a paper-piecing class and absolutely, positively HATED it with a passion. I said I would never, ever, ever paper-piece again. You know what they say about "never say never". Because here I am doing it. I bought Carol Doak's paper and a DVD and worked at it. I enlarged those small wall hanging blocks onto the 8-1/2" X 11" paper and got to work. It has been as frustrating as the 9-patch blocks I talked about in the previous post. Long story short - I've finally got the piecing completed, and 90% of the embellishments completed (photos soon). I don't know if the embellishments should be called applique, because I'm not really sure if that's what I was doing or not. But my daughter and I are going to get together Saturday and we're going to the quilt shop to look for fabric for the sashing, border, binding and backing. Since I don't know about the "rules" for the sizes of sashing and binding, maybe the folks at the quilt store can assist us with that. But I need additional width and length. I'm thinking she'll want it 3 blocks wide with 4 blocks long. With the block sizes 8-1/2" X 11" and since we only have 12 months in the year, that's not giving me a lot for the width. That gives me a width of only 24". Yikes! Gotta add a lot more fabric to get something worthy of a lap top.
So thankfully, I'm getting excited about getting with daughter #1 to select those fabrics on Saturday. I can't wait to see what she selects, and I hope someone at the shop can assist with ideas of fabrics to possibly make multiple borders (gotta have more and more to add extra inches). Last night I wondered if we could do four borders, one for each season. Her mother-in-law has an embroidery machine. She could embroider "Summer, Winter, Spring and Fall" on each border. I just don't know if daughter #1 would like that idea, and cannot for the life of me imagine what colors to use. But it's an idea and I can suggest it. Maybe we could find some fabrics that would make that work. We'll see. [Just wish I knew how to use the embroidery function of my sewing machine, and I could do the embroidery myself].
Wish us luck!
I don't think I've told you about the quilt I've been working on for my daughter. She's very particular, so she has picked out every single fabric that is going to be used in her quilt. And that's fine with me. We live about 45 minutes apart, and both have our responsibilities, so it's difficult to get together. She always has to come to my house because we're shopping my stash. And since I started this quilt for her, I told her she definitely has to know how much I love her. Because she has had me step outside my comfort zone.
A little background is in order. I have twin daughters. They'll turn 34 years old the 25th of this month. This daughter (daughter #1 since she was first-born) never asks for anything and is super independent. And she's a very private person (unlike me and daughter #2). Before I left Germany in June 2008, daughter #1 said she had found a quilt she would like me to make for her. To say I was ecstatic would be an understatement. I would LOVE to do something for her! Yes! So I said "Sure, send me a picture of what you want." And what does she send me? A calendar quilt wall-hanging. But she didn't want it as a wall-hanging. She wants it as a lap quilt. Well, I had taken a paper-piecing class and absolutely, positively HATED it with a passion. I said I would never, ever, ever paper-piece again. You know what they say about "never say never". Because here I am doing it. I bought Carol Doak's paper and a DVD and worked at it. I enlarged those small wall hanging blocks onto the 8-1/2" X 11" paper and got to work. It has been as frustrating as the 9-patch blocks I talked about in the previous post. Long story short - I've finally got the piecing completed, and 90% of the embellishments completed (photos soon). I don't know if the embellishments should be called applique, because I'm not really sure if that's what I was doing or not. But my daughter and I are going to get together Saturday and we're going to the quilt shop to look for fabric for the sashing, border, binding and backing. Since I don't know about the "rules" for the sizes of sashing and binding, maybe the folks at the quilt store can assist us with that. But I need additional width and length. I'm thinking she'll want it 3 blocks wide with 4 blocks long. With the block sizes 8-1/2" X 11" and since we only have 12 months in the year, that's not giving me a lot for the width. That gives me a width of only 24". Yikes! Gotta add a lot more fabric to get something worthy of a lap top.
So thankfully, I'm getting excited about getting with daughter #1 to select those fabrics on Saturday. I can't wait to see what she selects, and I hope someone at the shop can assist with ideas of fabrics to possibly make multiple borders (gotta have more and more to add extra inches). Last night I wondered if we could do four borders, one for each season. Her mother-in-law has an embroidery machine. She could embroider "Summer, Winter, Spring and Fall" on each border. I just don't know if daughter #1 would like that idea, and cannot for the life of me imagine what colors to use. But it's an idea and I can suggest it. Maybe we could find some fabrics that would make that work. We'll see. [Just wish I knew how to use the embroidery function of my sewing machine, and I could do the embroidery myself].
Wish us luck!
3 comments:
Sounds great! Good luck at the LQS with DD#1 !
Nothing is more special than working on something like this with your daughter. My only daughter is too far away, so I feel a bit envious...enjoy your time together!
I'm not sure on the size of the sashing but what about a graduated size of strips for the border. Say if you were to start with a 1" and the next being a 2" then a 4" etc. Right there you've added 7 inches to each side so it would be 14 inches wider. Just something to consider.
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