I had such a great time going to my bestie's Bridal Shower, it helped that it was held at her parents gorgeous house on the Chesapeake Bay. I only took one picture of the view, yea only one, I had to hold back....
One of the best parts was when her dad answered the door and didn't even recognize me. My first thought was, yup I gained about 40 pounds since high school (doesn't help that I was about 20 pounds under weight in high school). Hopefully it was just the sunglasses.
On to the quilt, to sum up the experience of making my first king-sized quilt is: I'm not sure when I really want to make another king-size, hahaha. It was a love/hate thing, and I totally love that it is in the hands of it's recipient now and no longer residing as my current elephant in the corner of my living room. Wonderful thing is that she loved it, and everyone else who was there to see. All of the ripping stitches and late night sewing was totally worth it in it's 10 foot by 10 foot existence, one of those labor of love things.
Note to self section:
-trim all corners/points that stick out past the block within the seam allowances, yea it shows
-when free-motion quilting lots of curvy-ness, up the tension on the top thread
-when in doubt just pin the stinkin' binding, it turns out right the first time
-don't go crazy with the thread color on large quilts, just blend
-do not use interfacing with applique, it sucks
-I really like closely stitched straight line quilting, and it's easier
Other than the gorgeous bride-to-be (right up there), the beautiful house and views, and the party with awesome food (as always Kim) it was so great to finally see my besties from high school again. We have all grown so much and yet are exactly the same 4 girls when we get together, unfortunately I am still the loud/random one (working on that, but it's hard when you're related to Derek...). Miss you ladies already!!
The rest of the posts about the progression of My First King can be found by clicking the link.
WOW! Beautiful quilt! That is such a great accomplishment! I just made my first rag quilt (with lots of improvement needed) I hope to make quilts some day... =)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much. It was quite an accomplishment for me. I started quilting in 2002 and this is by far the largest quilt I've ever made. I am very happy with it.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the way the sashing is a secondary pattern! My quilt guild just started a block-of-the-month project. I won a raffle that same week of blue and yellow prints and decided it was a sign. So, plan: make two blocks of each of the blocks-of-the-month, save some of the solids to do sashing like yours, and then find someone (like my sister) with a king-sized bed. I'm thinking that I might quilt it as I go, though. Thanks for the idea.
ReplyDeleteSally, I 'm so glad you love it. I felt like the blocks with just the white was somewhat washed out looking as a whole. And, I love it when quilts have multiple dimensions/patterns like that. I was really happy with the outcome, and will definitely use this sashing idea again (even hoping to integrate different designs into the sashing).
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the raffle win, would love to see what you're doing!