A Challenging Finish

I had mentioned in my last post about doing a quilt for pay that was quite challenging. It was a wedding quilt for a couple in Florida who were married in 2008. They apparently gave a square of fabric to each guest and told them to make a quilt square. Great idea huh? Well, not after you realize that most people don't know how to make a quilt square.

The fabric squares were not of good quality and were frayed a bit from being kept in the box. I am told that the people couldn't find anyone in Florida who would put the blocks together, so the mother brought them to NC with her and asked Marti, of Marti's Patchwork Cottage in Black Mountain, if she knew anyone who would do the job. She immediately thought of my sister, who kept the blocks since last August before deciding she had no idea what to do with them, so as a last ditch effort before sending them back, she gave them to me.

Some of the blocks have a lot of "stuff" sewn and glued on them and some have pictures and some just writing. The blocks were not all the same size so I had to trim them as best I could. There was not much room left so I decided to do them as a QAYG. And because of all the stuff, I had to hand quilt them all, then join them. I used this tutorial from Valerie Custom Quilting (free download!! Check out her site. She does great work!!!)

There were 34 blocks, 1 of which was cut too small before it came to me, and the other just had too much stuff on it. So, I made it 4 blocks x 8 blocks. Long and skinny.  Here is the finished product. The 2 extra blocks, I quilted and bound and put a little hanger on so they could be displayed with the quilt. I hope the folks like it.

As usual it looks crooked in the picture, but it's not, lol. I spent 30 hours sewing on this quilt!! It will never be able to be washed, so I didn't do heavy quilting, but I am pleased with the outcome. See how I hung the extra 2 blocks on the front? They could be hung from the ends of the hanging dowel too, or I thought this would lie nicely on top of a twin bed with the extras on the pillow. I like it as a wall hanging though. Whew. I'm glad to be done.

This post went on a little longer than I thought, so assuming your attention spans are as short as mine, I will post about my other finish in the next one.

Later,
WilmaNC