Crazy October and quilts.....

October could not have been busier.

 

Baby Jude was born to my youngest daughter.

 

 

My son was married two weeks later.

 

 

So, as you can imagine, between visits to the hospital, staying with my daughter for a week after the baby was born, dinners with out-of-town family/friends prior to and after the wedding, rehearsal dinner, the wedding and throw in a funeral for the bride's grandma who passed away two days before the wedding, I was behind on getting the wedding quilt done.

 

If you remember, my son and his fiancé had given me a picture of a quilt that they wanted me to replicate.

 

They chose these fabrics for their quilt (oranges and grays)

 

 

Prior to retreat in June, I cut up all of the 11+ yards into strips and while at retreat I stitched all the strips together.  

 

 

I made a grid to lay on top of the picture of the original quilt.

 

 

 

and then on a piece of paper, I worked out the sizes for each of the sections for the quilt plus I added one more row to make it a queen-sized quilt.

 

 

As I got a section done, I scratched it out.

 

Tonight I finished the top, but it is so big and the edges should probably be stay-stitched so that my seams don't open up, but for now, it is folded and hung on my sewing room door.

 

 

So, this picture just gives you a sneak peek. This is probably just about a quarter of the quilt.

 

Now I have to say, I have very little fabric left over. 

 

 

There's a few loose strips and I have 13 butt end strip sections that I "maybe" could get out 9" cuts that could be used for pillow case edges.  We will see though. 

 

I will have to do some measuring to make sure my quilt top is square and then I have to piece the backing fabric and once that is done, I am going to put it on the long arm and get this thing quilted.  I am debating whether to use a solid orange of a solid gray for the binding. I may ask the bride for her opinion on this and I am thinking of using an orange thread to quilt straight line stitching to give it an even more modern look. 

 

So stay tuned.  I am hoping life slows down a bit here but with the holidays coming, I may just have to wait until 2014 to come around.