jude's quilt

This quilt started out to be for me.  Once I had the top done, it just sat waiting.  When the hubby had an employee retiring (one we know would appreciate it and was worthy of my effort), it came up in the pile of quilts I'd be willing to part with.  It became Jude's Retirement quilt.

But let's back up to the beginning, shall we?

In February of 2022 I was heading to a retreat with friends.  I needed to plan projects and cut pieces so my time could be well-spent sewing.  (Never mind the minimization of errors thanks to not having to think too hard about what I was doing.)

I perused my patterns and came across the "Tumbleweeds Quilt" pattern by Down Grapevine Lane in my stash of patterns.  I believe it had been purchased while on retreat at the same place the year before.

It took a bit of debate, but I thought doing reds and oranges and yellows on a dark background would be fun.  Pinks came in, too.

I did have to purchase the dark blue background, but everything else came from my fabric stash.  (That's part of why pink came in - I didn't have quite enough variety without it.)

I cut and cut and cut - all by hand, all using a cardboard template - and finally had everything I needed.

Now to mix and match and organize!

(Looking back at this photo, I have no idea what the designations on the bags mean, but you can see I had sets of pieces pinned together, so...)

At retreat, as at home, construction of these blocks took a lot of time.  Each block has 16 curves to sew.  And then you have to sew those squares together.

By day four (heading home), I had this:

It didn't feel like much, but I needed 16 blocks for the quilt, so I was more than halfway done.

(This was not the only project I worked on - so no, I didn't spend four days making 9 blocks only!)

Back at home, I eventually got them all done and then needed a layout that kept too much of one color bunching up.  Being scrappy, this was again a challenge.

Toby helped, of course.

(oh, joy, blurry)

The blocks needed sashing, something I normally don't much like, but the pattern called for it and they definitely needed some space to breathe and show off.

It took a while and some of the arcs aren't great at the skinny end, but it's okay.  I had a top!

And then it sat, waiting patiently, for it's turn on the longarm to become a real quilt.  I still liked it, but it wasn't as amazing as I thought it could be.  That sometimes happens to me when I get too up close and personal in the construction of a quilt.  Usually it goes away when I quilt it.

But then the hubby needed a quilt and we weren't sure what the timeline was.  (Turns out I had about two weeks more than we thought, but two weeks versus four isn't really a LOT of extra time.)  And so he chose this one over about four others and I was off to find a back for it.

It was a tough decision and I did find a print that was part of a line of Beatles fabrics that said "Hey Jude!" all over it, but I thought that might be a bit much.  Particularly if she didn't care for the band.

Longarming time!  This was in the phase where I did like five quilts in four weeks.  (That phase is over, but I had a lot of other stuff happening all at once, so it needed to at least take a pause.)

First up, what to do...and then how to make it work in the corners...

I did freehand straight lines in all the background, about a half inch apart.  There was some waviness in places (curves tend to make that worse and there were a LOT of them!), so this made everything lie flat and play nice.

And then in the "flowers"?

Simple but effective and what I had envisioned all along.

It took longer than I wanted - all that background quilting - but I got it done.

Back to the sewing room for some binding options.  Ugh!  Looks like I had used up a LOT of the extras from this quilt either in making this quilt or on a project after it.  All I had left with enough were two pinks!  (I wanted to use the red with daisy-like motifs, but nope.)

Turns out that worked out better with the back fabric anyways.

Toby, of course, crawled right in and made himself at home.  And then got angry with me when I kept moving things and pins were poking him.  (He loves quilts, though, so any opportunity to share one with a human is a good opportunity.)

In just a few hours, the binding was done and I only needed to add a label.  Which of course I did the night before.

Last week Wednesday Jude got her quilt.  I expected she'd cry - she's that kind of lady - and she did.  I wasn't there, but the hubby gave it to her and she was so excited.  She then sent him about four text messages about it, including a screenshot of messages between her and one of her daughters about it!  (I think she liked it.)

One more time with the finished photo?

Quilt Pattern: Tumbleweeds Quilt

Designer: Down Grapevine Lane

Size: 68" x 68" (I think - modified from the pattern to be larger)

Pieced and quilted by me!

In other news, I have been sewing hammocks like a madwoman.  In March I got a BIG bin (I wish I'd taken a before photo) of fabrics from a lady who had bought them to make masks (I can't believe all of them were for that, but who knows - there were some oddballs, though) and decided she was done with that.  I know making and wearing masks is not done much any more, but based on what came to me, she had some crazy ambition.  Maybe she made more and burned out.  But based on the fat quarters with mask pieces cut smack out of the middle, I'm guessing it was just crazy ambition.

Anyways, there were a lot of 1-yard or half yard cuts and a TON (like over 100) fat quarters in singles and bundles.  I set the fat quarters aside, knowing some had mates or coordinates and others did not and I wanted, at the end, to mix and match those.  But smaller cuts mean less mass-production, so it took a long time to get through everything.

Finally, I got to play with the fat quarters and then yesterday sewed up even the last of those.  The bin is refilled (though not as compactly) with finished hammocks and a few pillowcases.

Finn is putting in some extra love for the homeless kitties who will get to use these.  (Though based on that glare, maybe he is mad he isn't using them himself?  Spoiled little brat has a much better life, he doesn't need hammocks.)

Toby snoozervised.

He cracks me up how he sleeps on his face.  At once point he had one back leg thrown up onto the poof bed (the grey thing behind him).

But he had probably earned it because he and Freddie also did this:

He brought and "outside toy" (chipmunk) inside and let it go.  Once it figured out it could get away down the furnace vent (to the left, behind the old trunk in the photo) instead of hiding under the TV stand (to the right), the game got interesting.

I was not amused.

But I hung a fishing pole toy down the vent (it's large and goes down about a foot to a flat surface and then the duct heads off at a 90 degree angle where you can't even see it) so it could maybe crawl back out and resigned myself to life with four cats and a chipmunk for a while.

A few hours later (Freddie gave up, but Toby is a true hunter) I heard a chirping racket.  It got back out and (I assume) Toby had it again.  Cornered in a cat bed/climber that I could throw a blanket over and take it all outside.

Back to just four cats.

Never a dull moment around here with these goofballs!

Happy quilting!

Katie