Me & My Stitches

Me & My Stitches
Click on the picture to go to my website. These are 1 1/4" pendants.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Day 7 of 7!

I know that I have spread this out over way more than 7 days here on my blog, but hubby is still working on my new computer.  I think everything is good now, except my e-mail - it's not 100% yet.  I know that a few of them have completely disappeared - so if you e-mailed me and haven't heard back, that's why.  Those e-mails are lost forever in cyberspace!

On to the last quilt of my 7 day challenge.  This is one that you have probably seen here before, but it's been awhile.  It hung in my local quilt shop for a long time (thank the good Lord that I had it back before they had a fire!).  This is the quilt that always attracts the most attention in my booth when I'm vending.  And it is the quilt that is the hardest to get a good picture of!  The 9 patch blocks finish at 1 1/2" and it is super scrappy.  I love scrap quilts, but I like controlled scrappy.  On this one I just decided that the blocks and colors were going to land where they land - no control - just grab a block and sew!  And guess what?  I won't do that again - lol! There is a spot in the quilt that just drives me crazy, but I'm not going to tell you what it is - you can guess if you want - and I will tell you if you are correct!  It really is square (or close to it) but looks funny hanging there because it's been folded up in my "show stuff".


Here are a few closeups,..


And a little closer...


There are 2 things that people always ask me about this one - how long did it take to make it and how many pieces are in it.  I honestly don't know how long it took (how's that for an answer?) because I didn't make any notes on when I started and finished like I normally do.  And, it took a long time because I didn't work on it continuously - I would make a bunch of 9 patches until I got sick of them, and then I would put it away.  At the time, I was making a lot of samples for my local shop, so I would make a sample for her, then use some of those scraps to make more 9 patches, then I would put it away again.  Finally, I just wanted it to be done, so that is how the size was determined! It is 52" square, but honestly, I wish I would have made it bigger, but it's too late now!  As for how many pieces - if I have calculated correctly, there are 6,301 pieces.  I hand quilted this one as well - it went much faster than I thought it would - I just quilted straight lines through the setting squares, both ways. if you want to make one, I sell the pattern on my website - it is called Size Does Matter.

I know I've mentioned my friend Nancy, who lives in California.  We sew together via Skype a lot and she has been here to visit a few times.  She is so fun and way too generous, and I was trying to think of what to give her for Christmas, when the idea popped in my head that I should make her a miniature version of this quilt!  I don't think that I took a picture of it before I sent it to her, but she posted it on her 7th day of 7 quilts on Instagram - which is why I decided to post mine on my 7th day of quilts.

That's the end of my quilt show for now!  I hope to continue to post here more often, but we will see!  Thanks for visiting!


5 comments:

  1. That is a gorgeous quilt!! Wow!

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  2. Mind-boggling stuff, Julie!
    I looked at the little mini you made for Nancy--oh, I want to drop everything and make one!!
    Love these 9-patch creations.
    Are you sure you can't keep up this quilt-a-day thing for the rest of the year? : )

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  3. Very cute! I admire you perseverance in getting it done and hand quilting it to boot!

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  4. Two things I don't do while quilting: keep track of the number of hours I spent making the quilt and the number of pieces in the quilt--keeping track of this takes out the joy of quilting

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  5. Wow! This quilt is awesome! 1 1/2'!!! Well, I shouldn't be too surprised because I made a large log cabin quilt with 1/2" finished logs. I do love 9-patches and I have a bunch from a swap, but not enough to make a large quilt like yours. I'm still trying to decide what to do with them. I LOVE yours!

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