Friday, May 24, 2013

A Really BIG Friday Finish!

May is such a great month this year -- FIVE Fridays!

OK, I don't have five finishes to show you, but I do have a funny story. It's about my most recent "Scrap Squad" quilt for Quiltmaker Magazine's Quilty Pleasures Blog. I wrote a tutorial using the "Tri Recs" tool for the Quilty Pleasures blog. But you, dear 52 Quilts readers, get the "behind the scenes" story.

When we received the pattern for Robin Waggoner's "Mandarin Express" quilt, I immediately thought of the huge pile of purple-and-tan four patches left over from Judy Laquidara's purple monochrome quilt challenge several years ago (at least three, because it was pre-52 Quilts blog!).  "Great, I'm halfway finished," I thought to myself!



I went to work cutting the triangle-within-a-square blocks and sewing, sewing, sewing.  Because there are two blocks to this quilt, and I want the four corners to be the same, it must have 63 blocks.  Up on the design wall, and man, this quilt is getting to be big.  And I'm only halfway finished.


That's only 40 blocks, and my design wall is filled! On I plug, sewing and sewing. At Barb Gardner's EQ7 class, I design a border to continue the chain blocks into the border. Finally, it's all pieced and ready to go to the long-arm quilter, Ann.

We measure the top, and it's 96" by 112" (!)  I know magazines rarely write patterns for quilts this large, what is the deal?  That's when I go back to the pattern and realize:

The pattern calls for 2" squares for the four-patches. Mine are based on 2.5" squares.  I've made a really, really big quilt!


So big, in fact, that when I hang it over the edge of the second-story deck, it almost touches the top of the light post on the patio below!

This will be a wedding quilt for the son of my late friend, Susan. He is a US Marine, currently attending flight school in Pensacola, Florida. When I took him and his fiance to lunch, I told them they could choose what they wanted for a wedding quilt: modern or traditional, and what color? Priscilla wouldn't say, so Spencer answered for her, "Traditional, and purple!"  I think my Mandarin Grape fits the bill, don't you?

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict "Whoop Whoop Friday."



LAFF - Richard and Tanya Quilts


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From the desk of your auntmartisignature

16 comments:

  1. That is really gorgeous! I love the colors too. They will be thrilled with it.

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  2. That is huge and so beautiful!

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  3. Wow, lovely quilt. Those quilts made with 2.5" 4 patches get big fast don't they.

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  4. Wow what a magnificent quilt. The colours are gorgeous and its supersize will mean super cuddly and warm.

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  5. Oh. My. Goodness. You've outdone yourself with that one, Marti. It's absolutely FAB-U-LOUS! :o)

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  6. I love it - no matter how big - snd Im sure the recipients will adore it too - hopefully it still passezs muster for the magazine - else you might have to make another???

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  7. Whoop whoop, Marti! It's magnificent!!! And no worrying about your bed partner stealing all the quilt!!

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  8. Great Friday finish! And, the story is great too. I love how his choices in the quilt fit perfect.

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  9. WOWeeee! That is one great, big beautiful quilt! I love the part when you realize that 2" verses 2.5" difference. But you got to use up those left over blocks from years previous! LOL! This quilt doesn't compute! Ha, ha! I spent the past few days designing a new project and it will be with 2" finished squares. They seem sew tiny and I am a bit nervous.... Love reading this and LOVE seeing the BIG finish!

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  10. at least two whoops are the order of the day here. Wow, Marti, you are making a gorgeous item here. Love the color scheme.

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  11. Oh my! I thought my croc quilt was big, but yours is even more enormous! And so much more beautiful! You are a real artist!!!

    Esther
    ipatchandquilt dot wordpress dot com
    esthersipatchandquilt at yahoo dot com

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  12. Very beautiful quilt. It will make a wonderful wedding present.

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  13. Our quilt guild just did a king-size Swoon quilt that is 117 x 117. Talk about a lot of quilting on that one! I love this newest finish of yours, and I'll bet your friends will, too.

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  14. Definitely fits the design brief! It is going to be large, but then it will have a nice hang over a king or queen size bed. Your lucky that when you resized the blocks all the other pieces were too, or still fit. I'd be in a terrible pickle trying to work out my mistake!

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  15. Gorgeous Marti...simply gorgeous.

    Jeannie

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