Oct 18, 2008

Quiltathon!

Figured since it was Quiltathon Weekend I would go full force and get this monster top done! Imagine my surprise when I started laying it out and found I was short a row and a half! Now I can be math challenged sometimes but this really got me!

Because I surely didn't want to cut more strips to get the other slew that would be needed out of this pile that I had left over. I had thought I cut way over and was hoping to have some left over to throw into a little scrappy throw.

Then under this pile I found................................

These!! Now I didn't dwell long on how they got there, I was just thrilled to find them and get them matched up, but it turned out I was still a little shy so ended up getting another 36 blocks from that pile to make up what I needed.

Now in the other post I talked about how I wasn't thrilled with it being all blue, I like blue, especially when they are made with these fabrics!! Now I could whip those kinds of patterns out all day long! ~smile~

So here we are now at 9pm, I started them out by two'sies then to four'sies, then don't know why I changed mid stream to rows but it is working out great, all the rows are ready for the final seam then I will go ahead and probably do a thin strip of dark blue to set it with an additional wider border to finish to size.

Right now it sits at 108X96 and since I will use cotton batting and wash it before giving to its new owner I know there will be some shrinkage to compensate for the extra, plus the gal said the closer to the floor the better because the daughter doesn't use a bed skirt. Know how I know? I called to ask if I could make it a little more towards laying at the top of the bed skirt, trying to save her some funds along with some time for myself! But alas, I was doomed to major huge!

Now I know this design has gotten to be pretty popular lately but before the popularity of it Mary had put together a little something of her own and she shared it, since then I have wanted to make one but in a more scrappy version. I need to take a picture of the quilt that inspired my customer, it was in all 2.5 inches strips of nothing but plaids but it was like the fourth quilt I ever made and it was one of Mary Ellen Hopkins designs and although very easy it used a lot of strips for one block! And there was no way I was going to recreate THAT in a 112X100!!

So I did a quick sketch of Mary's Boxed Squares and she loved it! In every shade of blue I could use! Now I was very pleased with being able to pull 80% of the fabric from my shelves, I went on an online clearance of blues hunt and bought one tower of 30 different fat quarters for $26!! I made that work with the rest of what I had then went to a sale at Fiddlestick's and she had some blues on for $3 a yard so grabbed a couple there but the mother load of a deal was a bolt of 24 yards of the ugliest blue that was absolutely perfect for the backing and probably the border as well as the binding if I cut right! It actually wasn't that ugly at all once she started unrolling it to take measurement, then it caught peoples eye, but it was all mine!!! Envision the evil laugh here!

Now I need to finish ironing the beast's rows to prepare for final assembly, am thinking I will finish it tomorrow though as my eyeballs are starting to go a little wonky!

5 comments:

Sandie @ crazy'boutquilts said...

Wow~ it looks great! And what fantastic buys you found! You are a shopper after my own heart! :-))

Ruthie said...

I love the blue squares! What a great idea to use up some blue stash.

Val said...

This is my first visit with you and I will be back. I love the quilt.

Sandie @ crazy'boutquilts said...

Hey Steph~ how ya doing? :-)

Susan said...

Love that quilt. The blues are great, and the simplicity makes it even better.