Tuesday, June 4, 2013

The Forever Project - Part 2

It was over a year ago that I first posted about The Forever Project.  A friend of mine asked me to make him a quilt with his large collection of concert t-shirts.  I was happy to help, and he mailed the shirts to me in April 2011.  Yup, over 2 years ago.

His only request was that the quilt not end up looking like a giant checkerboard, which seemed logical enough at the time.  I got to work right away ironing fusible interfacing to the back of each design and cutting them out to (more or less) match the size and shape of the design on the shirt.  Then I put them into a drawer.  For a year.

In May 2012, I made some embroidered blocks, with song lyrics he had asked me to include.  Since I was thinking about this project again (finally), I pulled the stack of shirts back out of hiding and laid them out on the top of my king sized bed, which they covered completely.  I started arranging them and realized that I should have spent more time thinking this through.... it is very difficult to attach squares and rectangles into a quilt when every single one is a different size.  Back into a drawer the entire pile went.... for another year.... 

From time to time, I would think about this quilt, try to make it work it my head, but it never came out of the drawer.  About a week ago, I decided enough was enough, I couldn't *actually* take forever to finish this quilt, even though that's the quilt's name -- The Forever Project.  So, back out they came, for the biggest, messiest game of Tetris I've ever played.


Layout 1: Too long, not wide enough.  Too many small homeless pieces.


Layout 27: Getting better, but still not quite right.


Layout 43: If we lose a skull, this may possibly work... 


Layout 92: The skull makes it's way back in!


I ended up printing out that last picture and drawing boxes around the "sections" I needed to create, in order to put this entire quilt together.  I ripped a few seams, made a few more changes, and I think I *finally* have the final layout figured out.  Maybe.  My goal is to finish putting the top together this week, since I'm leaving for 3 weeks in New York on Sunday.  I know I won't have the back done, but I'll sleep much better at night knowing that "forever" may actually arrive!

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

Thanks for stopping by!
~ Kat ~

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Summer Song quilt for Allie

Want to know the best way to make it rain in South Florida?  Let me finish a quilt and want to take some photos of it outside.  Works every time!  We're on day 487 of rain and gloom here.  OK, maybe only 5.... but still a lot when you really want an outdoor shot!   The grass was finally dry enough this morning to take a few photos, but of course, the sun went behind the clouds quickly as soon as I got outside.  My husband is now racing to mow the insanely high lawn before the rain begins yet again.


I found this fabric at Tuesday Morning.  I don't typically make such colorful, busy quilts, but something about these FQ bundles called out to me.  I'm really glad I listened, I think it's wonderful!  I see more color and more "busy-ness" in my quilting future!  The fabric is a Riley Blake design called "Summer Song."  The 2 FQ bundles were similar but one was in the orange scheme and the other in pink.




The quilt is for my younger daughter's BFF (Allie), who is moving far away to Minnesota next week, the day after school ends.  I am so sad for my daughter.  When she was 3, her BFF moved to Israel.  When she was 4, her new BFF moved to northern Florida.  Now, almost age 7, her BFF for the past 2 years is moving to Minnesota.  We wanted to send her away with a really special gift that she could keep forever.


I made a small pillow to match and quilted it all with my go-to "meandering squiggly stuff" in a bright pink color.  It measures 40" x 60" after washing.


I used a bright, striped binding (which also came in the FQ bundle).  This quilt used a total of 12 FQs for the front and about 1.5 more for the binding.  I think I'm in love!




~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

Thanks for stopping by!
~ Kat ~