Sunday, July 12, 2009

My coin quilt saga- from A to Z....


I started to make a quilt in early June, in a hurry to catch up with a quilt-along. The premise was to use 12 different fabrics to make 42 blocks that each consisted of 6 strips. It required a half-yard of each of the 12 fabrics. Well, I didn't have 12 half-yard pieces that went together, but I had a ton of bright colored fat quarters and thought I could make that work. So you can see the fabrics in the first photo- it doesn't show all of them, but you get the drift. And I sewed them into random blocks and laid them out of the floor. EW! I didn't like the results at all, it was too bright, too busy, no cohesion at all. So I folded the blocks in half and liked that a lot better, especially having them all going one way, like a coin stack. So my quilt was off in a different direction!
Of course, I needed more order to my quilt, so I started unstitching the blocks. Phew. I'm still doing that, actually, 210 seams is a lot of seams to unpick. Anyway, I reorganized the strips, added some more different ones, took some away, etc. I even used some of them to make "Pity Potholders", things that I hope will generate some pity income to compensate for me having cut up $100 worth of fat quarters into strips that won't make it into a quilt. I've also made some of them into "Scrappy Neck Wrappies" and I even sold one on Etsy. Woo! I'm $6.50 out of the hole! lol
When I was laying out coins, I had a helper- my big boy, Murphy. Then Nosey Parker emerged onto the scene, what a little cutie-pie! I had to time my sewing to her naps, she's kind of excitable.
And finally, I got it finished. I made lemonade out of lemons, so to remind me of my mistakes and lessons learned, I used lemon fabric on the back of the quilt and named it "Lemonade". And we all like it, especially Nosey Parker. It's on the loveseat and she's using it at bedtime to wear herself out, playing on it, climbing it, tearing around like a nut and doing somersaults, it's pretty hysterical to watch. Hopefully she won't damage it before we've had time to enjoy it!
It measures about 63" x 82", the biggest one I've done so far. (I've only done 2, I guess "bigger" would be the proper word to use.) :) I used white Kona cotton for the sashing and borders and I machine quilted it using a stipple stitch. It washed and dried and crinkled up SO nicely!

And there you have it- a stacked coin quilt that was supposed to be something completely different. I guess you just never know what's going to happen, do you?

2 comments:

Cristin said...

I agree, LOVE the new layout better for sure! I saw your photos on Flickr and just had to check out your blog ;-)

Susan said...

And I'm glad you did, thanks for stopping by, Cristin!