Leah's Quilt - Delivered this morning to a super awesome dad, made for his little girl.
I started talking with Mike this summer about making a quilt for his 8yr old daughter. They had been looking for a long time, with no luck, trying to find just the right bedroom set for his purple tie-dye loving girl.
We talked a bit about designs, but he pretty much came up with the whole plan on this one. Didn't he do an awesome job?
The biggest thing they had trouble with was finding that main purple batik. I sent him links to a whole bunch of them, and we all loved this print. We were able to find the source and he ordered a whole bolt.
Going from there, he then found Moda Marbles for making the quartered triangle blocks, and spent a good amount of time trying to get just the right colors from Hancock's online. I think it was a labor of love! I had thought that perhaps they changed their mind about having the quilt made, as I didn't hear from him again until December. With a couple iterations of colors choices, and waiting for back ordered stuff, he spent a long time just gathering all the supplies.
THEN! A quilt store person had mentioned at one point that fabrics should be pre-washed before quilting. I told him how I usually do not pre-wash, but he was interested in prepping everything himself. Seriously, this Dad deserves a medal. He washed the half yards of solids, and full bolts(!) of the batik, cream, and a light purple that was used on the back and is intended for curtains. AND HE IRONED IT ALL! His daughter and wife are super lucky to have such a dedicated dad.
The quilt finished up at 88" square. Too big for my husband to hold flat on his own, and everybody else was already off to school.
I really enjoyed making these huge blocks. 24" square - joined by 3" sashing. Such a fun quilt, and the end look is really very striking - especially in person. With the fabric hunting and quilt design, I thought that Mike just needed his own sewing machine to get hooked on quilting!
I was super happy with how well my horizontal and vertical lines matched up in all directions. I had a system of rulers, and cutting mat, and order of measuring - all to make sure those creams would align.
Since the little girl is 8, and they hope she will have this on her bed for years to come, a nice stipple was the way to go.
Good texture and extra strength for the long haul.
Along with the quilt, she needed two European sized pillow shams.
Since the purple would be right at the edge with the 24" blocks, and we wanted to keep the center solids the same size as the quilt, I ended up cutting down the edges of the purple a couple inches all around. That way you would still get the effect of a sashed block.
I was kind of nervous about them being the right size, so I took the whole thing over to my mom and dad's. Quilting was done and pillow mostly assembled. Just the binding needed adding on everything. But at that point, the pillow would still be easy to adjust in or out as needed.
We stuffed a 26" pillow inside and laid it all out on their queen bed. At this point I was wanting to keep it for myself!
You can get a peek of the turned down top on their bed. I had shown Mike several of my quilts when this all started, and he liked the idea of the pieced backs I do. A great idea, he planned the back to have an accent strip of the same solids.
That backing purple is intended for the curtains, as well.
He asked me a whole bunch of times to make the curtains. They're actually very simple, straight panels, but I declined. Lining and then evenly hemming all four sides, so that they hang nice and straight, for those tall curtains....worried me. Never having done them myself, I didn't want to have my first pass going into their house. Things like that never seem to work out nicely on the first pass.
Even without the curtains yet, I hope that Leah is super excited about this quilt that her Dad designed just for her! (And I love this pattern, I think I'll put it in the queue for myself.)
Now - please note the small tree just out the window, to the left of the quilt. See how it's kind of bright out, and everything is all clear? The nasty winter ice and snow storm headed our way was brought on quickly by my journey to deliver the quilt, and our joking about how we probably wouldn't get more than a drizzle and a couple flakes. Because that's pretty much how these last two winters have gone in Chicago.
Within 10 minutes of leaving for home, my highway journey was attacked by ice pellets, sleet, and huge heavy snow. The back yard is now a winter wonderland.
You're welcome O'Hare flyers and Chicagoland.
Now, with the custom quilt done and hibernation starting, Let the Baby-Girl-Sewing begin!
