Unexpected Delight

My recent project has been a quilt. When I say recent, I mean I just finished the top face this past Monday night at 9pm. Whew! As it is my own creation, I have the right—nay, the duty—to name it. Thus, from henceforth, it shall be known as, “Unexpected Delight.”

Of all the quilts I have made, this is the most unique. Besides being the biggest one I have made so far, it is the first one that I have created outside of my comfort zone. I usually go for the easiest pattern so I do not have to spend an eternity on one project. The quicker it is done, the sooner I can move onto the next one. Makes sense, right?

Feel free to grab some hot chocolate and let me tell you the story of this amazing quilt...

It started in a Saturday Sampler class I took with Jan and Laura. I tend to choose colors that are me such as blues, greens, earth tones, and other laid back colors. In this particular class, there were two options offered (a chic black/red/white one and a loud, bright colored one). I was instantly drawn to the second one with its vivid colors, wanting the fabric and knowing the quilt made would be for me. I daresay my choice surprised my partners as much as it did me, but it could not be helped.

It was fate, written in the stars, God's providence, whatever you want to call it.

After a year, I had 12 blocks. It took until my birthday this June to get complimentary fabric to finish my blanket. With the needed fabric in hand, I eagerly looked through my quilt books for patterns.

As I searched the pages, something peculiar occurred. I did not want to do my usual easy square pattern with two simple outer borders. This quilt was too special for something that ordinary. Thus I decided to challenge myself. Nothing big, of course, but something a little different.

I was inspired by a friend's quilt that was set in a diagonal pattern with sashing. That led to the idea of what I was looking for. With the quilting books not giving me inspiration, I sketched a basic pattern and then decided to create my own. Now that is highly unusual for me. Creating my own pattern? With no guidance from a book? Who is this person?

With the blueprints written and the measurements taken, my would-be quilt took a life of its own and took me on a road I have never been on or thought I was ready to go on. Not only was I going to do a diagonal pattern with sashing, but I was going to have fancy sashing with a design within that and square points! In addition, I was going to add another block to do this design! If that was not enough—to add to this madness—I was going to add fancy outer borders instead of using simple solid ones!

This crazy quilt also led me to spend more time on a quilt than I normally would have. I double-checked and triple-checked the blueprints regularly, I took out stitches of perfectly good blocks so I could make them great, and ripped out seams whenever points and squares did not match up perfectly.

All this hard work was well worth it and the final product is stunning. I never thought it would turn out as great as it did. This was the result:

Besides getting a story from this entry, I think you can take away a few moral lessons on the importance of planning, of taking your time on a project, that challenging yourself once in a while can help you grow and produce something far more beautiful than you imagined, and...well, whatever other lessons your mind comes up with.

Incredible Borders and Sashing from scraps

We all have our own unique styles when quilting. My mom's is of the quick and easy variety.  She likes projects she can finish quickly and that look amazing.  I on the other hand am known among our Pack to not only take, but seek out the most complicated patterns and projects.  If it’s too easy or too fast, it’s just not as fun!  I think this is a result of how I learned to quilt.  I started when I was 14 with my Aunt Linda who invited me to a Saturday Sampler.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept, most Saturday Sampler’s work from a similar template.  You attend a class once a month and get the fabric and pattern for one block each month. Most stores have you pay say $5 for the first kit, and if you come back the next month with a finished block, you get the next kit for free! At the end of the year you have 12 blocks, and if you kept up with the blocks, you only paid 5 dollars for all of it!   Anyway, back to the point, Saturday samplers are usually a little more complicated than your average first quilt, and I jumped in head first and never looked back! I loved every minute of it, and even though those first quilts were far from perfect, and there was my fair share of seam ripping, tears and frustration, it taught me to always push myself to the next level and never settle for good enough.

The other thing I learned from Saturday Samplers is to hoard every scrap of fabric.  We saved each and every left over bit from those kits, and at the end of the 12 months, we had 12 finished blocks and a stack of scraps to create our borders with coordinating fabrics.  Here is my first Saturday Sampler that I finished when I was 16 (don’t do the math on how many years it took me to actually finish the thing!).  The sashing was very simple on this quilt.  All my energy went into the border, but it was worth it!

 

This is the close up of the borders. Don't look too closely, as I've said, this was my first quilt.

My next quilt was also a Saturday Sampler, from the same place, The Nine Patch, which is closed now.  This is one of my favorite quilts because of the amazing colors! This time, my energy was focused on the sashing.

  I know this is a pattern somewhere, and I have seen it since, but at the time, it was just an idea in my head, and I put it into my quilt without a pattern.

You can see how I sewed the sashing on each block from this selection.

With both of these examples, you can see how much the extra fancy boarder or sashing can really make your quilt pop!  I know that once you finish your blocks the last thing you want to do is think about a complicated border, but trust me, the end result is well worth it! After you put so much effort into the blocks, why not put as much effort and love into the borders to create a unified effect across the whole quilt?  Plus, what else are you going to do with all those scraps?  Well….I have a few ideas for that as well…but that’s for another post.