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.
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 ~
