Shimmer

Amy and Tim open the quilt!

I've been wanting to make this quilt called "Shimmer" from the February 2004 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting for a long time (since the magazine debuted). Ben and I decided that it would be a good pattern to make as a wedding gift for Tim and Amy, and with a bit of a last-minute push, I was able to finish it in time.  Their wedding yesterday was beautiful (at least what I saw of it, when I wasn't rushing out with a screaming Jonah), and we gave them the quilt this morning. I hope they enjoy it for many, many years to come!

The full quilt (queen).

Close-up view of the quilt.

While I personally liked the pattern, I didn't much care for the color palette used in the magazine and decided to make it entirely out of batiks for a more contemporary look and feel.  I was able to make the entire quilt (except backing) from my stash, which was an added bonus and probably attests to my need to continue my fabric "diet."  The pattern itself was well written as it appeared in the magazine, though had I actually purchased fabrics following their materials list, I think I would have been a bit put off by the excess they wrote into the pattern (I was able to get nearly twice as many stars from the yardage they suggested).

I did my best to work within a color palette of blues, purples, blue-greens, and burgundies, and I'm guessing there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 or more different fabrics in the quilt, as most of the fabrics I used were fat quarter cuts.  I realized later on that I could have used some left over jelly roll strips, as some of the units were based on a 2.5" grid.

The label, using a bit of leftover fabric to tie to the design of the front.

While I normally choose a cotton batting, I opted to use wool this time and may be a convert, as the loft and feel is nice.  In this case, there wasn't a huge difference in price due to the size of the quilt and the widths in which the battings are sold.

I have four extra blocks left over (they are large, at 19" square) that I plan to sew up into a separate project, perhaps for one of the handmade gifts I promised in a Facebook challenge earlier this year. We'll see whether I can bear to part with them.



Wishing Tim and Amy many, many years of happiness!

Russ and Shannon's Wedding Quilt

Some of you might have guessed that the quilt I was madly sewing together last month was the one I was creating for Russ and Shannon's wedding this past weekend (my brother-in-law and new sister-in-law). I hadn't wanted to post too much information earlier because I'm not sure if they read the blog. But the wedding's over and they've seen the quilt, so, without further ado, here it is!

Ben picked the pattern from Successful Scrap Quilts from Simple Rectangles by Judy Turner and Margaret Rolfe. This particular quilt was called Flush of Spring and in the book was done in greens and pinks, designed to finish at 63" x 81". I wanted to make it larger to fit a queen sized bed, and this design was easy enough to resize, featuring a 9" finished block size. My version finished at 91" x 109" (yes, my seam allowance must be slightly off, but given the large number of seams in this quilt, I am not terribly worried about it). Ben and I picked out 26 different fabrics for the top at Fabric Fusion before they went out of business, placing each fabric roughly in the light or dark pile (although there are a few that could go either way). All but one of the fabrics is a batik (challenge: find the one that is not).

Sandi turned the quilt around amazingly quickly. Ben dropped it off for her on a Thursday night, and it was waiting for me when I got home from San Francisco two nights later. She did a great job, as usual. The quilting pattern is called "too much bubbly" and the curves go nicely in contrast to all the rectangles of the top.


Ben drew a lovely label for the back (his contribution, in addition to ironing the batting, dropping off the quilt to Sandi and picking out the quilting pattern), using Pigma pens on muslin.


Here are Russ and Shannon opening the quilt at the rehearsal dinner last Friday night. I felt badly because everyone at the dinner stopped to watch them open it; Ben and I just wanted to see them open it and weren't sure when would be a good time and the rehearsal had seemed easiest, given everyone's hectic schedules. Everyone seemed to like it and I had a good number of people interested in purchasing quilts if I ever go into business, recommendations on using Etsy to sell my work, etc. If only I had more time!