sasquatch

Many years ago, my dad decided to grow a full beard and mustache.  My mom hated it.  The bigger it got, the more she hated it.  I'm not sure exactly of the timeline, but I know my wedding was approaching and it was growing rather full.  It wasn't long, but my dad has very thick, curly hair, so it was quite the thing.

My oldest niece on my side of the family was three at this time.

We decided to try to get her to call him Grandpa Sasquatch - or Grampa Squatch for short.

She never caught on, but we all remember the Grampa Squatch phase.

He shaved it off two days before my wedding.  Being early August, the heat may have prompted him to do it.  My mom's nagging may have convinced him.  But I never asked.  He was my dad, furry face or not.  And I surely wasn't going to do something to jeopardize his being at my wedding.  Not that.

So there's that Sasquatch story in my family.

And then, ten years ago (holy cow, ten years!), my mom found the ALF costume she had made for my youngest brother (dad to the niece we tried to teach Grampa Squatch to) when he was in elementary school for Halloween.  I blogged about the adventure we had, as adults, with the costume and the trail cam for the same brother who wore the costume.  But it sure looked a bit like Sasquatch had been caught on camera to anyone who didn't remember the show or just glanced quickly!

Just in case you don't want to click the link...here's the photo the trail cam caught:

So there is a Sasquatch history with my crazy family.  Not a real "I've seen him" sort of history.  A much less normal story.  But being normal is overrated anyways.

And when I saw the Legendary pattern by Elizabeth Hartman, I knew what I had to do!

I purchased this while on quilt retreat in January, expecting to have it done to give to my dad for Christmas.  That gave me almost a year, but I had a lot of other projects going and wasn't sure how it would fit in so I gave myself plenty of time.

But then one day, I decided it was time.  Fabrics were on sale and off I went with the pattern and an idea to make the trees scrappier than the pattern.  Back when you could just go off and buy fabric.

The brown tree bark seemed perfect for a matted fur, hiding-in-the-woods type character and the birch trees would be a perfect back for the quilt.  I only needed to raid my stash for a few more fabrics to round out my varied forest of trees.

You can see the purchased fabrics in the middle and some pulled from the stash around them.  Not all the fabrics made the cut - some weren't large enough pieces and others just didn't seem to fit.  The trees take more fabric than you'd expect, but that's okay.  In the end, I had enough and I feel like all the fabrics ended up playing well together.

I started with Sasquatch himself.  I was excited to work on him, despite the directional nature of my fabric and the many, many pieces.

I cut carefully - trying to check the placement of each piece and, if it was to be a lost-corner triangle, which orientation would be correct when sewing.

And there is only one piece that is going a direction that seems wrong to me.  Okay, maybe two, but they're not terrible and we can just say he slept funny on it last night!

For the trees I cut all the pieces and then did mass-construction.  Maybe I made one to test and then kept going?  But this was a few months ago, so forgive my inability to remember it all.

Anyways, here are the trees and Sasquatch together as blocks, for scale.

Next I needed to decide on a layout.  Of course, this included a round of vacuuming the design floor first...and some help...to re-fur the floor AND the blocks...

...but eventually I decided on a layout where the trees that were the same were evenly enough scattered to make me happy.  In nature they are not perfectly arranged, so I just had to let this go and not worry too much!

Then it was time for the long seams and such.  Thankfully, this pattern didn't have too many points to pay attention to.  There could have been fewer for my liking, but there also could have been more, so I'm just going to focus on being happy there weren't more!

And then I had a top!

Yep, this was when we had snow.  I could go look at the date, but let's just say it was before the end of March, okay?

Holy cow, I'm done super early!  I might have this done for his birthday - early July!

At this point, though, it went into the to-be-quilted pile and went to the bottom.  Because I had a bunch of charity tops to get done and that deadline was not only before Christmas, but before his birthday.  I knew it was in there and knew I wanted to get it done sooner rather than later, but it could also wait.

Once ALL of the other deadline quilts were done (including Willow's and Becky's), I had JUST enough batting to complete this one.  But that was the E.N.D. of my batting stash.

I decided to do windy swirls in the background, furry scribbles in Sasquatch and needley scribbles in the pine trees.  I changed threads a lot - even with three colors - because those trees are not in straight rows vertically, so I had to roll half a roll and do a few and then do it again.  It's okay.  It wasn't THAT hard, just annoying.  But it did allow me to make sure I didn't run out of bobbin unexpectedly.  Or so one would think...

I'm not sure if you can see anything better in this photo, but hey, I have it, so let's use it!

You can see out my windows there that it is definitely green outside!  (You can even get a tiny glimpse of the hubby's new truck - purchased just four days before our governor shut down the whole state (except essential businesses like those the hubby and I work at!)...)

And then it was done!

As I trim the quilts, I drape the part I am not trimming over the take-up bar and use the table on the back of the machine to do the trimming.  When I was finished, the quilt was still draped there while I tidied up.  Finn took advantage and started the cat-testing/approval process immediately.

Since I hope my dad will use this, the testing process was much appreciated.  Gabby would also take a turn as I sewed down binding, but like the little camera shy photobomber, she did not allow me to take any pics of her help.

But then it was done-done!  I wrote up a label (one with a story about my dad gluing himself to the roof - an event he vehemently denies happened, but it did) and attached that, too, and it was done.

Ready for Father's Day!  Almost three weeks before his birthday!

We just visited for a short while, on the porch, due to virus concerns, but he liked it.  Well, he liked all but the label.  He threatened to "fix" that with a permanent marker.  My brother, who happened to be stopping by at the same time, foolishly pointed out to him a seam ripper would probably work better.  Little brat!  But I'd bet that label is still there.  He's a good sport when we tease.  Then again, he did threaten to un-adopt me.  (That is a long-running joke.  I was about 12 and being rather sassy and he told me I was adopted, trying to shut me up.  I shot right back "thank goodness, there's a chance."  To this day he still reminds me, when I'm being feisty, that I'm adopted.  I am not.  We all know better, but he thinks he is somehow insulting me.  Whether I am or not, my parents gave me a good childhood, so it's all good to me!)

I got a text from him a few days later, thanking me again for his quilt, and a photo...

...my baby sister, Shandy, was helping him decide where to hang it.  Obviously, it needed some further testing first.  And he ended up hanging it in front of the fireplace (behind the couch there) for now.  But once the weather gets colder again, maybe he'll take it down to use it?  My mom is a save-the-quilt-for-posterity type person, so maybe he won't get to use it...

So there you have it, the latest quilt to come off the longarm.  I did manage to score two rolls of batting at JoAnn's the other day.  It was on sale and we were in town, so I headed in and they had five rolls!  I didn't want to be greedy, so I just picked up two 120x120" rolls and tried not to look at anything else on my way out.  I haven't fired up the longarm yet, but have a few quilts in line!

One of which is the bear's paw I've been sharing.  This week, I worked on getting the quarter blocks into whole blocks and those into rows...

...and the rows sashed to one another...

...and finally, today, a top!

I made the hubby hold it for me, as it was too windy to use the clothesline and the fence I use instead is not tall enough.  He grumbled, but I made him do it anyways!

I also made a collage of a mid-year roundup of quilts I've finished the first half of this year, but this post is getting long and since I'm out of finished quilts to share now, I suppose that will be a good filler for the next one?!

Now what shall I start next?!

Happy quilting!

Katie