Thursday, November 22, 2012

My best quilt ever

In 2007 my son asked me to make him a quilt for his bed.  The online quilt group I belonged to had just started a block of the month.  I hadn't even been quilting a year, but I told him I would make the blocks of the month in whatever color he wanted and in a year he would have a quilt.  He wanted red, white and black.  So that's what I did and I kept up with the blocks and after a year I had 12 blocks.  But he said he wanted the quilt to fit his queen size bed so I needed twice as many blocks.  So I used some of the free ones offered on the group site.  But he wanted it to hang down the sides so I figured I needed 49 blocks.  And then I thought it would be best if it was longer so that it could cover the pillows, which meant I needed 56 blocks.  This quilt just kept growing and growing and needing more blocks.  Finally I decided to just make 28 blocks (I had 24 already) and alternate that with 28 solid black fabric squares.  That made it easier.  But then I had to quilt something pretty in those empty black blocks.  He wanted a celtic design so I gave him some options and picked what he wanted.  But the pieced blocks were stars so the design he picked wouldn't work well so I got a different one for the pieced blocks.  But it didn't go into the corners and left a lot of unquilted space so I added some quilted celtic triangle knots in the corners.  Then I wanted to try a different border and corners.  So that was another quilting design -- all celtic.  When it was finally done, 5 years later, it was the best quilt I ever made.  I'm so glad it's done and I was able to give it to him for his birthday which landed on Thanksgiving this year. 






6 comments:

NickersMarie said...
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NickersMarie said...

Cathy, I saw this over on Carol's Yahoo Group and just love it. I popped over here to look at close ups of the quilting. What a gorgeous project. Congratulations on finishing!

Nicky

Anael said...
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Anael said...
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Not1knowsme said...

Cathy, My daughter's favorite colors are the same as what are in your stars. I'm working, slowly on collecting what she calls totem signs, or tribal signs, in machine embroidery for her quilt. They also will be sewn in red and black. I saw your post on Carol's group and wanted to know more, and love what you did with the empty blocks. I'm still up in the air about what to do with hers, but yours is so nice. Thanks for being an inspiration. Ila in Maine

ConnieB/CA said...

Just lovely! The use of black alternating blocks is genious, really allows one to see all the star blocks, makes them pop. I love Celtic designs, and was wondering where you got your quilting designs.