hunter's quilt

Two quilts have been gifted in the last week, so I have something to share beyond my measly attempts at sewing!

We'll start with the older quilt.  The one that has been sitting here waiting for me to give it away for far too long.

Hunter's quilt.  

Hunter is a really cool gal who had been working where I work now for a few months before I started there.  She helped me learn the ropes of running the cash register while also keeping the nearby areas tidy and such.  She's a few years younger than I am, but we got along well.

Then, because retail pays REALLY well, she decided that she needed to do better at adulting and get a job that paid enough to allow her to live on her own, have a car AND eat!  So she left us.  I still miss her at work, but she is doing so much better, so I'm also happy for her.

And THEN, she bought a house with her boyfriend.  (He still works with me, though they didn't start dating till after she left.  I think?)

So she needs a housewarming quilt, right?  (We also gave them a window air conditioning unit that we don't use any more, so that can be HIS housewarming gift, okay?  Not that I have any doubt she will share the quilt.)

I pondered for a while and then remembered I'd bought the pattern for the Woodland Wonderland quilt.

Perfect.

I went shopping for a background fabric, knowing I liked their version with the dark background quite a lot.

I raided my stash for the reds and greens and whites and tans.  I have plenty of pieces that are perfect for a scrappy quilt like this.  (The background is the grey on the right.)  I even managed to use up some smaller pieces!

If you've been around a while, you've seen the progress of individual blocks earlier this year, so I'll spare you that entire pile of photos and move on to the part where blocks started to be sewn together.

The pattern, though, does not have you construct all the parts and then sew them together.  It's more of a "SQUIRREL!" and you sew together some parts and then go back to sewing individual blocks.  A few times.

I was worried this would get tricky because seam allowances are fiesty things, but I vaguely remember only once having to rip and fix something.  But I don't remember what, so it must not have been that terrible.

Pretty soon it was time to get the larger sections together with each other.

I had lots of help, but it's okay.  She has two cats and her boyfriend has a dog, so I wasn't too worried about these goofballs helping.

As I neared the end, the question of putting the flying geese on the right side came up.  The pattern specifies that it is optional, but I decided to go for it.  It would be a fair amount of work, but I can make them four at a time and speed things up.  Also, a little larger isn't bad.  (Boyfriend is like 6 feet tall, so...)

Outside for a photo shoot because this was the state of things if I tried inside:

Yep, that's a cat under there.  I don't remember which one, but all the boys were helping at one point or another.  This quilt seemed to attract them more than others.  I guess they knew it was going to a cat-lover, so they had to add extra love?  At least you don't get the sun shining through here like the outside shot!

And then it was time to get it on the longarm.  No time to delay as I was hoping they would make it to the pig roast, but work schedules are always questionable, so I wasn't sure.  (Obviously they didn't make it if it's been waiting this long, but still, it was ready.)

The fabric is directional, so I had to make sure I loaded it going the right direction.  (And Hunter is OCD enough that if it was backwards or seamed goofy, it would drive her nuts.  I debated on using a large gingham for the back and decided not to just because of this - no way could I match that perfectly!)

What did I put into it?

Just some of my usual swirls.  I debated doing something more custom, but I was on a tight timeline and I'm STILL trying to get that final tweak to make my longarm behave all the time again.  I think this looks good enough and gives it a nice amount of texture.

Next up was the binding.  I'm not lying when I tell you I was finishing these two quilts up the morning of the pig roast!  Even though I ended up not needing them, they were ready.

Toby was a goodest helper with the binding.  He always is.  He likes to be inside blankets.

He also made sure to test it out and add the last bit of extra love at the end.  (He's a bitey jerk, but he also knows how to be a super snuggly lovey boy.)

And finally, the finished product!

My hubby and his cousin were pulled away from pig roasting supervision (aka: day drinking) to help me get this photo.  It was windy, so they have a tight hold on it, but they were good sports.

Quilt stats:

Pattern: Woodland Wonderland

Designer: Fig Tree & Co.

Size: 52" x 61"

Pieced and quilted by me!

And with that, I'm thankful to have had something with photos to share.  My week has been a busy one.  An extra shift at work, a baby shower (that quilt will come next week) and I had little time to myself.  The kicker cat toys I was working on last week have made some forward progress, but no photos.

I did sign up for two Halloween quilt-alongs that were free and both started October first.  The first is the Spooky Season Sampler, hosted by Cotton and Joy.  And the second is the Soul-a-Long, hosted by Mija Handmade.  The first blocks are already available, but I'm going to wait to see a few before I start sewing.  This may be a next-Halloween-timeline quilt.  Or two.

The hand-sewing blocks are at a standstill, but I honestly have not had much time.  The cat toys only got attention because they were a sewing room project, which was needed yesterday when the hubby was watching 13 different channels, and I was losing my mind trying to keep track of/ignore ANY of them.  (Football on a few channels, reruns of Married with Children, Looney Tunes...ugh...how does his mind process all that?!)

We'll see what this week brings.  The schedule for work is still normal (though I'm a sucker for picking up shifts and/or staying over lately) and there are no extras like baby showers this week.

Happy quilting!

Katie