Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Wedding Quilt Becomes a Reality!

I am thrilled to say that I have completed the quilt top for my son and his soon-to-be bride! And just in time to meet my August goal for One Monthly Goal.


What is it about making a king sized quilt that makes it seem like it just drags on and on forever? Oh, yeah. They are HUGE! And every step just takes that much longer.

But the result will be well worth it. The newlyweds chose this pattern almost two years ago. And instead of making it up right away, I stuffed it away in a plastic bin because I had a fear of curved piecing. How ridiculous! I had purchased the fabric, but just kept it in hiding.

However, once I overcame my fears, by taking a Craftsy class on curved piecing, I was good to proceed.


And if you read my last post, I miscalculated on the number of blocks as I increased the pattern from a throw quilt to a king quilt. Doh! Fortunately I had purchased extra fabric of all colors, and I simply made 10 more blocks. And then ordered additional fabric for the borders. I actually added 11" on each side to make the quilt come to 108 x 108 inches square. Whew!

The fun part was laying out the blocks. They were designed to go together in random fashion, so that is exactly what I did.  After I laid them out the first time, I snapped a photo and turned it into grayscale so I could 'see' better where any visual imbalances might reside.


Here's my first grayscale.  I ended switching some blocks around and came up with this second grayscale photo.


I actually played around with moving several more blocks here and there. But once I started to do that, then another area would become unbalanced. Finally, I decided it looked just fine and gathered them up to sew together for the final quilt top.


For those of you who whose brains are strongly geared toward symmetry, pattern and reason, this quilt is not for you! My husband, who is an engineer, goes crazy when he looks at it. He can see no pattern in it. Nothing matches up. It makes no sense to him. I think that is exactly why I like it so much - it's a jumble of color and movement, and your eye travels around to see what comes next!

This is a quilt which challenged me to go outside of my comfort zone of color. First of all, I have never made a quilt entirely out of solids before. But playing with nine different colors proved to be fun! That chartreuse green shocked my senses each time I cut one out and then again every time I sewed it into a block. And the yellow was so bold! But when it all came together, and once I added a 4-inch inner border and a 7-inch outer border in complimentary colors, I really liked it! In fact, I love it!


The pattern I used is called Cacophony by Tina Lewis from the Winter 2016 edition of Modern Patchwork.  I have three weeks to get this quilted and bound before we head to Portland for the wedding. I need to decide if I should custom quilt it with a lot of straight lines and a few curves, or just doe and edge-to-edge on it?  September 22 is my target date, so I wouldn't have to mail this monster. We can present it to them ourselves!

I certainly hope they like the finished product.  I'll post more shots after I get it quilted and bound. Which, by the way, will be my September OMG Goal!

And one more thing:  I must say that making a quilt for such a special occasion has been a very heartwarming, personal adventure. Next I want to make one for my daughter and son-in-law!

Quilting with a smile,
Barb

Linking up with:
August OMG
Linky Tuesday
Midweek Makers 
WOW

28 comments:

  1. Barb, that is just gorgeous! Way to go, enlarging it to king size! I'll look forward to seeing how you quilt it.

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  2. Wow! It really is amazing. I think that wide border really frames it up nicely. I think it was a "happy mistake".

    Great job!

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  3. King size should just be called Monster size, IMO. Do folks realize 4 baby quilts fit in a King size? I think this is going to be a favorite of a new couple with all the bright color and pattern. I like these non-linear patterns, too, but would opt for an edge to edge to keep it more contemporary. Will be looking to see what you choose.

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  4. Barb this is amazing!! Kudos to you for stepping out of your comfort zone with curves and solids. I love the random placement and the colors couldn't be more perfect. I can't believe you made a kingsize quilt!! Your son and DIL are of course going to love it...forever and ever!

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  5. I love it! My engineering brain also loves symmetry and order, but only when I'm making my own quilts. I love to see the beauty of organic movement in other people's because it stretches me. Your color choices are spot on and the whole piece just sings :)

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  6. Taking a black and white photo-thank you for the tip. You took on the color and pattern challenge for a very important quilt...my hats off to you. I love the quilt top and I'm inspired.

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  7. However you choose to finish it, it is already beautiful and will only become more so. These ware wonderful colors.

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  8. This is just amazing! Thanks for linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal and congrats on your finish.

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  9. How absolutely WONDERFUL to see this quilt as a flimsy! I LOVE LOVE the colour palette! The design does that to my eyes (I'm like your husband to a large degree methinks) like make me ONE full ring, puh-LEASE! Quilting, hmm, those large HSTs are calling to me for some dot to dot...maybe do half of it (like divide the quilt in half diagonally) with an allover that morphs into some custom? Choose certain parts of the blocks (like the HSTs or one of the stripes, or the curves) and do custom there but allover everywhere else? So many possibilities!

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    1. PS I bought some fabric today for Dayna's quilt.... LOLOL I can here you chuckling from this end of our continent!

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  10. What a terrific pattern. This is beautiful! I love the colors. Aren't cameras useful for trying out the grayscale? But I agree - at some point you just have to go with it. They will LOVE this quilt.

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  11. Great quilt pattern and the colours you have chosen are absolutely fabulous! Congratulations!

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  12. I love the colours you have chosen and the pattern!

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  13. Love the colors and the design. Well done!

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  14. Nice to see this as the Sept goal! Thanks for linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal and good luck with your project.

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  15. Love it!! Such happy colours and enjoy the wedding!!

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  16. Beautiful design and colors! What an awesome (and enormous) finish!

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  17. It's really lovely -- a fantastic piece! The idea of making your photo B&W to more easily see the light/dark values is smart. Happy September! :)

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  18. Hi Barb! WOWEE! This is truly great. I can see your husband's point. I am usually a pretty balanced, symmetrical type of gal. But there is sort of a pattern in the randomness. HAHA! That chartreuse is just fabulous - a shock of color that is so perfect with all the blue shades. I didn't even notice yellow - that read as the chartreuse until I looked again. I also think the solids are perfect. A print would have taken away from the random pattern, and made it too busy. The newlyweds will LOVE this!! I can't wait to see how you quilt it. I'm going to check out the pattern. ~smile~ Roseanne

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  19. It is HUGE!!!! And it is gorgeous. I am sure they will love it. In fact, they will be completely awe-struck by the beauty of it.

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  20. Barb, this is so beautiful! Huge is right. I have a king size bed and am contemplating some sort of quilt for it but it would be very big blocks - also in solids. Your kids will treasure this. Looking forward to hearing about the wedding. We are counting down the days to my son's, T-16 days left!!! Woohoo!

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  21. Gorgeous quilt. The recipients should cherish it forever.

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  22. Your quilt is fabulous! I see what you mean about it being huge. They will love it! The colours work great together. I especially love the green. Well done and have a super time at the wedding!

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  23. Hey, congrats, you made your deadline!! Wow! Kind sized quilts are rather daunting, they go on and on and on. I love the bright, bold colors that you've chosen, and it's a beautiful one of a kind quilt that makes such a great gift. They are so lucky to have it!

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