jordan's quilt

Finally it is time for the last quilt of 2019 to be featured: Jordan's quilt!

This all started last summer when my hubby's cousin, Jessi, asked me if I would make her daughter, Jordan, a quilt for Christmas.  Jordan was in her first year of college and had a little apartment and mom (Jessi) wanted to make it a bit more homey.  And a surprise.

She wanted it simple and I was okay with simple.  It meant it would go faster.  My first thought was something like the Yellow Brick Road pattern.  Jessi liked that.  Yay!  (Although, I'll admit, I never saw myself making this pattern - it just seemed too simple!)

She wanted blues and greys, as that was the color scheme for the bedroom.  And something that leaned towards travel.  Oh the horror, I need to go shopping!

I came home with some beauties (and some not-so-beauties, but I had to make a whole quilt!) and then raided my stash for a few more fabrics.  Since I had no other projects going on right then, I got started right away on the cutting.  And realized I was going to need a whole lot more.  (WHAT?)  I raided the stash again and found just enough to make the 100 blocks I was going to need for a large double-size quilt.  (I wasn't planning to do the borders, so a few extra blocks were okay - you all know I can't follow a pattern!)

I took few photos in progress, but this one of all 100 blocks crammed behind the sewing machine might make you smile.

It felt good to be this far in, but I knew the long seams were coming soon.

I vacuumed the design floor and started in on a layout.

My living room wasn't quite wide enough, nor were my arms long enough, to get it all laid out flat and photographed, but you get the idea here.  And I sent this photo along to mom to make sure I was going the right direction.  This feels very masculine to me (particularly for a girl who seems quite girly), but she loved it, so onward!

I remember getting all of the seams sewn and on the very last one, Freddie made himself a nest as I started sewing that last long, dreaded seam.  Little stinker.  And look at those eyes...he's ready for trouble!

I procrastinated for a while, having gotten the top done, but eventually headed out and found some fabric for the back.  (Of which I took no photo...it's grey with birds on it.)  Knowing it needed to be handed over a little before the holiday kept me moving on this project.

It's a big quilt and took a bit to wrangle onto the longarm, but I've done bigger.

I wimped out and chose to do swirls over the whole thing.  But I wasn't sure what else to do, as custom on something with these large, fairly randomly placed pieces seemed overwhelming.  (And hey, you can kinda see the back fabric peeking out there at the bottom of the photo!)

It took a while, but my machine behaved and I was done before long.

Next up was trimming and binding, which of course called for some Gilmore Girls!  Even that didn't seem to take too long (at least I don't remember thinking it took that long) and I even added a label with some inspirational words chosen by Jessi.

And with that, I handed off a completed 90x90" quilt to be given at Christmas.

This is actually Jordan's second quilt.  She got one as a toddler, I believe when her younger sister was born.  I wasn't as into baby quilts when she and her older brother were born, but I think by the time her younger (by 3 years) sister came along, I gave all three kids quilts at the same time.  I'll have to think on that and see about finding photos and blogging about those quilts...

In the meantime, here's what I've been up to!

After I finished the Project Quilting quilt, I went back to the star quilt, first deciding on an overall layout and then raiding the stash for sashing and border fabrics.

I used a bunch more red 2.5" squares from the stash for cornerstones (cutting those down that were used in the middle part - I cheated a little?!) and then dug through the stash for something appropriate for binding.

I didn't actually dig that long before this jumped out at me.  There isn't much purple in the quilt, but this just seemed perfect.  So it has been cut and sewn and pressed and ready to roll.

Then, the leftover "lost" corners from making the PQ hearts were screaming at me.  They wanted to be quarter square triangles, not half square triangles.  So I dug out the Angler again and obliged them, figuring they would scream further as I sewed, about what they wanted to be.

But so far, they have gone silent.  Oh well.  They'll be there another day.

And with that finished, I decided it was TIME to start longarming some of these quilts I've been stacking up lately.  First up?  The January quilt was calling loudest to me, so why not?!

Sadly, this is the last photo I took, but it has been quilted (swirls all over - what my friends have started calling "Katie-ing" the quilt), trimmed square (the triangles made for wonky edges and I have no desire to EVER bind a quilt with those angles again!) and binding sewn down.  The hand-sewing portion of binding is yet to be completed, but my back was acting up again yesterday, so I opted for something requiring more movement, in the hopes it would keep my back loose.  (I baked cookies!)

I will get to the binding soon enough.

Also, I ordered a kit for a baby quilt.  Another cousin is going to be a grandpa.  And this granddaughter needs a quilt, right?  So I decided she needed something super cool and found this princess castle pattern and kit for a good price.  I can't wait to get started, though I may modify it some - it's a bit on the long side for a baby quilt - but there I go again, not leaving things well enough alone!

(The gal who is pregnant actually got two quilts as a baby and youngster - both the same pattern - that are also not blogged.  The list of waiting quilts seems to be growing tonight!)

So that's it for me.  I worked a longer shift today, but kept busy and my back has loosened up considerably and I'm hoping it won't freeze up tonight as soon as I sit still too long.  Who knows what tomorrow will hold?!

Happy quilting,

Katie