Sweet Dreams - Finishing Up

     My favorite pieced quilt of all time!  I love this quilt.  The piecing is very precise thanks to Deb Tucker's V block ruler, Quilt in a Day triangle ruler and extreme starching.  I love the colors and fabrics, Hand Picked by Riley Blake.  I love the design.  This is the most complicated piecing I have done and I am so pleased with how it turned out.

     As best as I can tell, it took 59 hours to starch the fabric , cut out, and piece the top together.  It took 14 hours to make the quilt sandwich and quilt it.   It took 4 hours to make the binding, bind it and make the label.  Speaking of the binding, I decided to use continuous bias binding as binding on the bias is supposed to wear longer.  I have used other tutorials in the past on how to cut the continuous binding but the one from makeit-loveit. com explained it more clearly than I have seen it before.  How to Make Continuous Strip Bias Binding  .
     I frequently neglect the last 5%, taking good pictures of my finished product as they are out the door as soon as they are finished.  This one had a trip to Stone Mountain Park in Georgia for her photo shoot.

Sweet Dreams

     "No one has ever made a quilt for me."   We were discussing a quilt I had made for my son in law when my daughter in law said that.  My daughter in law is dear to me.  I have made a quilt for my son ( a Quilt of Valor as he is a combat infantry marine veteran) and my grandbaby (her daughter) and even my daughter in law's mother (a What Cancer Cannot Do panel quilt during her radiation treatments).  I was a little surprised since she is a quilter herself.  I have learned from experience, you don't make Italian food for real Italians.  So I was not sure a quilter would want a quilt made by someone else.  But I was glad to know it.  Of course, it is time for me to make one for her.  With her birthday coming up in February, this is the perfect time.
     Since my daughter in law is a quilter, I knew her quilt had to be extra special.  I have been doing a lot of applique lately.  But for my DIL, I decided on a challenging and complicated pieced project.  First step, always  make a pinterest board - in this case, private of course, so she would have no hints that a quilt was coming.  I have loved Shakespeare in the Park for a long time.  It is on my bucket list.  I also love Storm at Sea.  I remembered some other patterns that look like curved piecing, but it is actually an optical illusion - looked curved (which I am scared of) but is not.  I looked at patterns called Calypso, kaleidoscope and others.  I found 3 patterns that are very similar I was drawn to for this project - one called Emily's wedding quilt,  another called  Aunt Gracie's Garden Quilt, and finally Missouri Star Quilt Company has a tutorial on it.  It is actually 2 blocks put together that look totally different when placed together.  I did not like the edges having incomplete blocks, so I found a pattern just like I wanted called Sweet Dreams in a book of red and white quilt patterns by Martingale Press.  Sweet Dreams, perfect name for my daughter in law's new quilt!

     Emily's Wedding Quilt
     Aunt Gracie's Garden Quilt
     Missouri Star Quilt Company Version
     Sweet Dreams by Lissa Alexander  

     So pattern decided upon!  Then on to fabric choice.
    Several weeks ago, knowing it could come in handy in the future, I had sent a link to Shannon Brinkley's color style quiz to my daughter and DIL.  I wanted to see what color schemes they are most drawn to.  How helpful is that to know!   You can take the quiz here:    Shannon Brinkley's Color Style Quiz
     Both girls came up as "spring" while I fell evenly between spring and winter which are basically the same, just winter is more intense.  White, not cream.  Clear colors, not muted.     Then I saw that Missouri Star Quilt Company's Daily Deal was a layer cake (10 inch squares) that were spring colors and perfect for DIL's quilt!   It was from Riley Blake Designs, called Hand Picked by Tammie Green.  Two layer cakes would be needed for this project.

     I spent the weekend starching and ironing fabric.  Intricate piecing is always easier to manage and more precise with highly starched fabrics.  I use straight liquid starch, not to be confused with spray starch.  I do pour it into a bottle and spray it on.  When dry, the fabric  becomes stiff like card stock.  
     Ready to begin!
   

Finally Finished!

I cannot estimate the hours this took, but I do know it was 10 days.  I slowly worked on the applique pieces.  I began with these original 4 pieces.

     That was a good start, then it went out of control after that!  I began adding more and more and more.  The fabric was Arbor Blossom by Nadra Ridgeway of Ellis and Higgs for Riley Blake.  I added some solids from Moda.  I had the center finished when my husband went on a 3 day business trip.  Oh joy!  Staying in my pj's all day sewing late into the night.  I planned to be finished after a couple of days.  Not so fast!  I spent 3 days squaring up, adding the borders, the baby name and the lines from an old hymn in the stars.  I tend to avoid free motion quilting, but this called for it.  I did echo stitching around the name, the stars and the appliques, blending the echoes together as  I went.  Since I had fat quarters rather than yardage, I made 2" finished squares for the border.  When I got the fat quarters, I cut each into 2- 2.5" strips and 2 - 6.5" strips.  I used the first set of 6.5" strips for the appliques.  I pulled one simple plaid print in 3 sets of colors for the binding.  The backing ended up being the other set of 6.5" strips cut into 6.5" squared for the back.  It was getting late on the first night when I decided to offset the squares rather than taking the time to match each corner on a 4 patch.
    This was commissioned for a baby that was to be born in February.  I got a text in November that the baby's delivery was imminent.  So, since November 29 I had been keeping up with her progress in the NICU after being born at 29 weeks.   She is home now and doing very well.  Her parents are people of deep faith, so the words to this old hymn I thought were appropriate for this.  This should be going out in the mail to her this week.

All things bright and beautiful

All things great and small

  

All things wise and wonderful

The Lord God made them all.

New Challenge - Applique

I have been busy using/learning several applique techniques.  I can tell practice will make perfect.  I have had a few I have thrown in the trash.  I have used several products to see what will work best for me.

4 days of work

 In preparation for this quilt I had purchased http://www.joann.com/sulky-water-soluble-stabilizer-roll-12inw-x-9yds/5555180.html 
I thought this was just what I need for turned applique as it would wash away and I would not have to remove as one does for freezer paper applique.  But as it was clear with a plastic feel, it did not take kindly to having the edges ironed down.

 For the sun, I eventually used a technique from Lori Holt at Bee in My Bonnet.  http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/2015/10/sew-simple-shapes-tutorial-using-pellon.html
I made a quick run to Walmart after being frustrated with Sulky stabilizer for my purposes.  I purchased featherweight iron on interfacing and sheer weight.  The sheer weight was just too light and poked through when I turned it.  I am very pleased with the featherweight, which still feels substantial even though called featherweight.

 I moved on to raw edge applique with the tree branch.  Used Heat and Bond Lite which is double sided iron on adhesive and raw edge appliqued along the edges.

 I used Lori Holt's technique for my little bird.  See how puffy it looks?  Since the iron on adhesive is on the back side, I cannot iron it out until ready to attach to the background fabric.  Both the leaves and birds were with the interfacing technique and looked puffy till stitched down.  I have read several blogs and seen video tutorials about invisible stitching of applique pieces.  But for this, my first big applique project I am using a combo of zigzag and straight stitching to do the final attachment.

Starting to look cute.  I am pleased with this.