DD#2 called me on Monday, and asked if I had any quilts made that had a lot of florals. I'm not big on florals, so unfortunately the answer was no. I asked her why, and she told me that a friend was just put on hospice and she loves florals. Can I just say cancer sucks? This woman is very young, I think late 20's, and a newlywed to boot. DD#2 is going up to see her this weekend. Am I busy? Yes. Do I have a quilt she can have? Yes, but it's not the right quilt. The thing is, I had some fabric on the way with which I was planning on making a floral quilt, but it was scheduled to arrive Wednesday afternoon. That wasn't going to give me enough time to get the quilt done before DD#2 needed it on Friday. I pulled out a colorful quilt to give her, but I wasn't satisfied.
Tuesday morning I started the day by binding two of the table toppers for the rally. All seven are quilted now, but I've only bound those two. When I came upstairs from the basement, it was only 7AM, and I had a package outside my front door. Now I want to make this clear, I've lived in this house for 20 years, and I order online a LOT. I have NEVER received a package so early in the morning. I grabbed the package and opened it, it was the solid fabric bundle I had been expecting Wednesday afternoon, but here is was, early Tuesday morning. Hmmm, Tuesday morning, could I get it done by Friday midday?
I had seen a photo of a quilt online that had inspired me to order that fat quarter bundle. I'm not usually one to work with pastels, but I had seen a photo of a quilt where each solid was paired with a floral of the same color. I really liked the quilt, and since it's much different than anything I've been working on, I thought it would be a fun experiment. Now I've got the solids, should I attempt to make a quilt in just a couple days? I decided it would do no harm to look in my stash and see if I had a floral to match each fat quarter. Now remember, I'm not a floral girl, nor am I into pastels, so anything I had was likely going to be something that came in a bundle or was given to me. It only took me about about 30 minutes to find a floral to go with each of the 20 solids in the bundle, I was shocked at how easily it came together. Some of the florals were the only florals I had in those colors, yet somehow they worked. It was meant to be.
I don't have much time, and now I'm working with 40 fat quarters. First up, press them all. While I'm pressing I decide to make HST's like the quilt I saw, but because of time, I need to make them large. I decided to go for 8" HST's. Everyone has their favorite way to make HST's, and since I don't want to waste any fabric, I decided to use the EZ Angle ruler, I have three sizes of EZ angle ruler, and the largest one would work. I cut an 8.5" strip from each of the 40 fat quarters, then matching the floral and the matching solid right sides together, I cut the HST's. Turns out I could get 4 HST's from the strips from each pair of the fat quarters. That gave me 80 HST's set 8x10 for a quilt that measures 64"x80" That will work. I got all the HST's cut and sewn, pressed and snipped the dog ears all before DH got home from work. That evening I actually cut up the rest of the fat quarters, I'll be making another quilt from 6" HST's, again set 8x10 for a 48" x 60" quilt. All the scraps I cut into 2" strips for what I hope will make a baby quilt. I think that's the first time I've ever cut up 40 fat quarters so quickly for different quilts.
Tuesday evening I also got the HST's up on the design wall. I knew I had no time to keep rearranging them, so since I had 4 of each colorway. I divided them into four identical stacks, then laid the quilt out by quadrant.
I was pretty happy with it, and I knew having it laid out would make assembling it easier on Wednesday.
Wednesday. I need to get this assembled and basted today. I had ONE wideback that would work with these colors. Remember I don't do pastels. It was amazing I had one at all. Sure I could have pieced a backing, but time is at a premium here. Assembling an 80 block quilt isn't that hard, so I was done before lunch, and then since DH was off, I had him help me layer the backing, batting and quilt top so I could pin baste it. I'm very blessed to have a sewing machine with a 13" throat, so I decided to lightly baste the quilt since I'd be quilting immediately, and the Warm and Natural batting I used clings pretty well to the fabrics. I only put one pin in each block, and two in each block on the edges. Since I got it basted so quickly, I decided to start quilting that same day. Time to choose thread. I vaguely recalled having a pastel variegated thread. I only purchased it because it was a buy three spools get three spools free sale, and they were out of the colors I wanted. Do I still have it? Yes I do.
I really want to use a gingham, and I like the green the best, even though all of them match. After another break for my arm, I machine sew on the binding, and toss the finished quilt in the washer. 53 hours from start to finish. Not something I could do on a regular basis. My arm is pretty sore, and I rarely make a quilt with such large pieces. The thing is, I'm satisfied. I can't cure cancer, but maybe I can show some compassion and bring some comfort to an awful situation.
Do I still have a list of projects with tight deadlines? Yup, and that's OK. If I'm ever too busy to show someone compassion, I'm too busy. If you ever need a quick quilt, I can tell you from experience large HST's work up fast.
Fresh from the dryer, I'll drop it off at DD#2's tonight.
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