Connie and Dean's Wedding Quilt
As I came up with the title, I began to wonder, why aren't these called marriage quilts? After all, the wedding lasts some minutes (OK, in some churches hours), the reception some hours, and the marriage lots longer. But I digress before I even start the real post.
The subtitle to this quilt is "Don't Put the Seam Ripper Away."
When Connie and Dean called me in February, I offered to make them a quilt. They chose a rough pattern based on a quilt they saw online which was blue and gray. I asked for a third color, and they chose white. So I asked for a fourth color and they chose purple. I happened to look through my stash of fabric and found one that Connie approved of. And, of course, I had to go fabric shopping. Found this adorably cute fabric. Since Connie has always been cute, and still is, I had to buy it for the quilt.
I picked out a center block, which had a LeMoyne Star in the center of a Feathered Star, with Lady of the Lake blocks around it. It looked cool, so, after picking out fabrics I headed off to a quilt retreat with friends and proceeded to put together that block.
The LeMoyne Star went together well, and I didn't even need a small circle of fabric to hide any mismatched points in the center! (It does help that the two fabrics in question are the same color, differing only in pattern.) Then I proceeded to cut fabric for the feather star points. (Those are the isosceles triangles, dark blue with circles, next to the white really obtuse triangles.) That is when I discovered I needed templates, and my template plastic was at home. So I winged it. And when I put it all together with the Lady of the Lake blocks, nothing matched. Got out the seam ripper, took the major stuff apart, and redid it at home, properly making the templates this time.
I put on borders. And now the block is not flat. So I got out the seam ripper, and redid the ends of the 8 seams at the centers, next to the points that stick out. It now lays flat.
Then I put on the next border, with little squares of fabric set on point. That means more bias -- for the uninitiated, that means stretchy -- seams. Plus I fussy cut the adorably cute hedgehog fabric so that all the little hedgehogs were facing the same direction. Well, AFTER redoing two of them, they all faced the same direction. It also isn't flat, but I ignored that while I figured out which blocks to do next.
I decided on a block called Byzantine Star, which has two sets of half rectangles triangles. I redesigned it with a third set of half rectangle triangles. (Now it looks more like a Christmas Cactus.) I bought more fabric -- 5 yards of light gray, so I WON'T run out, (and I didn't!) and cut up all the pieces. Then I headed off to the Quilt Guild's retreat, a 5 day affair. I figured I could make all the blocks I needed, whip them together, add borders, and send it off to my friend Jodi, the quilter, with plenty of time to spare so it could be brought to the wedding.
Do you know how many ways you can put together the Byzantine star wrong? It doesn't help that the top background is white and the other three backgrounds are gray! Plus the hedgehog fabric needed to face the right away. I developed a habit of not even capping the seam ripper, just leaving it open beside the sewing machine.
On to the corner blocks. On many of my quilts, I put in a block called "Marion's Choice." Jack's given name is Jacob, so he gets represented by a Jacob's Ladder block. This seemed appropriate for a wedding quilt, so I texted Connie to see what Dean's parents' names are. Steve and Julie.
Sidebar: The origin of quilt block names are shrouded in the mists of history. Many are historical names, like "Burgoyne's Surrender" (whoever he was) or place names like "Ohio Star." Then there is Pine Tree, or T-block (they all look like t shirts), Mariner's Compass (it looks the the compass rose on old maps). There are very few blocks with people's name. I was convinced that I would never find a Steve or Julie Block.
So, I asked Connie what they like to do, hoping to find something there. And then, on a whim, I decided to google "Steve quilt block" and "Julie quilt block." AND GUESS WHAT! THEY EXIST! Both are relatively simple blocks, so I jazzed them up a little. I needed complicated blocks in the corners for balance, so I put 4 of each in there.
I made three of them at the retreat. And then came home.
The Even Steven Block didn't turn out right with the colors I chose, so I remade it at home. The Julia block went together without significant problems, just a couple of 1 and 2 inch seams needed to be redone. The Jacob's Ladder Block was significantly smaller than the rest, so I remade that. My own block miraculously did not cause me any problems! Well, except I made an extra set of triangles. I added some borders to these.
Now I have: A 29 inch center block, four 28 inch byzantine star variations, and four corner blocks all larger than 28 inches, but can be trimmed without issues (or so I thought.)
I redid about 5 seams on each side on the center block -- remember they stretch -- I miraculously brought the center block back to 28 inches. And it lays flat! Now I need to trim the corner blocks. A friend has a large mat, so I went over there. I forgot to bring my own rotary cutter, so I used hers. It is one of those funny ergonomic things I have never used before, and I promptly veered off into the dark blue border that I wanted to keep. So I dug out the seam ripper, which I had thought safe to put away. Fortunately, I had enough fabric to replace that piece.
Sewed everything together...keeping all those adorably cute hedgehogs facing the same direction. Fortunately, on the corner blocks, I had them facing all 4 directions so it didn't matter which way I put those blocks in! (Well, except for the Jacob's Ladder block, but Jack doesn't always obey me anyway. So there is a metaphor.)
Auditioned borders, and put three on.
It doesn't lay flat at all! Jodi said not to worry, she can quilt around it, there is only a 2 inch difference.
Three days later I decided the borders need replacing, because why not, I've redone nearly everything else on this quilt. But it turned out only two of them needed replacing. Returned the now flat quilt to Jodi for quilting. She got it quilted and returned to me. I put the binding on without any problems! And here it is!
Corner blocks, clockwise from top right: The Julie Block, Jacob's Ladder, Even Steven, and Marion's Choice.
The quilt was finished, label and everything, on Sunday. Wednesday we left for Minnesota.
The land of 10,000 lakes.
Now I know why I put the Lady of the Lake blocks in the center: Connie is now a Minnesotan!
posted by Marion @ 3:08 PM
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