tara and chuck's quilt

It's been a long time coming, this quilt, and the wedding that it was made for, but it finally happened!

Tara is a coworker.  She's been there 30 years.  She's worked her way up from cashier to assistant manager.  I like Tara.

But Tara is not great at choosing men, as shown by her two divorces and a few ding-dongs that she dated in the early years of our shared employment.

A few years ago she started dating Chuck.  He'd had a crush on her for quite a while, but she was never single when he was.  Things finally lined up and he jumped at the opportunity.  And he screwed up things quite a few times.  They went through a lot before she was even ready to consider anything serious with him.  But eventually they moved in together and got engaged.  He had grown up some in that meantime.  The engagement dragged on for a while.  And I had this quilt in mind for them, even before that (Chuck wanted a quilt and kept pestering me about it, not understanding that I am not a quilter for hire - if I want to make you one, you'll get it, if not, you can't pay me enough to talk me into it...I've learned the hard way!), but was waiting.

Then one day there was talk of more-or-less eloping over the July 4th holiday.

Well.

Get those fabrics out.  Buy a few more because though this fat quarter bundle is wonderful, I can't use two blacks and two whites in this pattern.  Thankfully my local quilt shop had some good options that I think paired well (those sitting diagonally in the photo).

And the pattern.

Cutting seemed to take forever, but I did this one just like the one for Charlie - cut one block from each fabric and then mix and match.

(But since the fabrics were fat quarters, I could layer things and cut multiples, which was nice and did make things go faster.  Of course, that saved time was spent ironing out the creases in the fat quarters that had been folded forever.)

Because I thought this was going to be needed sooner than later, I did get the blocks together quite quickly - though they do have a lot of parts!

I sewed the quarters and then worried about the sashings...

As always, I had help...

From both of my black cats and more.

And then the dreaded long rows...

Pieced sashings made this take longer, too...

But eventually I got the blocks together and had a (very oddly colored photo of the) top done.

But by this time, the bride and groom had not eloped and didn't really seem to be making any progress towards a wedding at all.

So it went into a holding pattern.

Maybe a year passes (every day seems like every other lately and they all seem to either stretch on for eons or pass in seconds, so I can't keep track) and Tara is sent to another store to help patch a management team together.  (This is what happens when the new district manager tries to fire his way to greatness.  He is no longer with the company - his choice, but I think there was some "writing on the wall" too.)

So there was again talk of the two of them just getting married to get it over and done with.  I'd hate to see a wedding happen just for convenience, but I also understand.

I ran out and got some fabric for the back.

Tara loves daisies.  And if something happens to this relationship, this is TARA'S quilt.  Sorry Chuck.  If you screw this up, you'll have to find someone else to make you another quilt!

And then it stalled out again because the longarm wasn't behaving.  Once the hubby got that sorted for me (I'm still angry at how easily he managed it) and I quilted one smaller quilt on it to test (you'll see that one next week as it's going to the new owner today), this one was up.

Somehow I managed to take no photos of it on the longarm.  Guess I was out of practice?  (I'm also just not a photo-taker...never have been...)

But I got it done.  The longarm behaved.

And another closeup of the quilting - this one is outside.

And I got the binding sewn on.  And then it got set aside again.  Because there was no upcoming wedding.

And then Chuck's dad, Charlie - of the quilt in the previous post - got sick.  Like really sick.  Like came home a week later in hospice care sick.

But before he was home, they'd decided to get married.  At the chapel in the hospital if necessary.  So Charlie could be there.  (Charlie loves Tara - who doesn't!)

Time to really buckle down and get the binding on this!  And a label, of course.  That won't take long - crank up some tunes (in this case a cool station I found a few months back - from NASA!) and sew like the wind.

With the binding on and ready to go, I was ready for the wedding a week or so later.  Charlie came home and they did the wedding in their front yard - a nice big yard.  Tara's family planned it in under a week and it was incredible.  Not in the over-the-top way of so many, but in a tent/good food/friend did the vows/country girl way.  Not too much fuss, not too much stress, and a focus on the friends and family.

I haven't yet heard much about the quilt - I checked that they got it, but I'm kinda shocked.  I thought I might get a more enthusiastic response.  I know there's a lot going on with their family.  I know she has a lot of hours at work (she came back to our store just a few weeks ago and is readjusting to all that was left for her to fix).  I suppose in due time I'll hear about it.  I just hope they don't hate it.

No actual quilting for me this week.  I just haven't felt like it, but I did sew down the binding on a baby quilt that's heading for a final destination today.  So a little time was spent in the sewing room.

I have read a bunch.  Of course!

  

These two are the first and third in a trilogy, of which I read the middle book last December.

Set in an alternative present (or near-present), humans have genetically manipulated most things as global warming caused extinctions and a need for species that could survive.  But one of the geniuses that was working on these projects was also working on a virus that would wipe out all humans - the theory is that he wanted to save the planet from humans, but we never see that confirmed.

He also seems to have created a vaccine, as a few humans - some he seems to have hand-picked - survived.  And these books tell the story through the survivors.

Also created were human hybrids - referred to as "the Children of Crake" - and I believe they were also meant to survive the pandemic.  (They did survive, but were isolated, so I'm not sure.)  Both of these books tell of the "Crakers," more than the middle book, and we see them as simple-minded, more like children even as adults, though the actual humans in the books care for them and teach them.

There is, as in the middle book, a fair amount of before and after storytelling that can make it a little difficult to follow if you're not paying attention, but the writing is so good, you do pay attention.

The worst part was finding it hard to take in considering all that is going on currently in our world.  I'm not going to get into the real world stuff here except to admit that it is concerning - or this book wouldn't have hit that hard.

They were all good.  I would recommend them to anyone.

This week the hubby is working second shift, so I'll have evenings to myself, which could mean sewing, but I'll probably end up not.  I'm still struggling with making quilts just because.  And finding patterns that just scream to be made is also difficult.  I'm okay with that, though I do feel a little guilty about my fabric stash just waiting for me...

Maybe some cat carrier covers?

Oh well.  It's all good.

Happy quilting and reading!
Katie