Finish Report! - Marissa's Moment of Caprice

Marissa’s Moment of Caprice

There once was a girl who was NOT a pastels and frilly kind of gal. She had more of a Gothic taste. But one day her mother needed to stop in a quilt shop. After some time, the girl wandered to her mother with a very feminine pastel charm pack in her hands and a very odd look on her face, saying, "Mom, I don't know why - I can't understand it, but I LOVE these. This is so weird!" So her mother replied: “Then we'd better buy them!” So they bought 2 packs and some yardage from the line, having no clue what they would be used for. The mother thought and thought and thought. And several months later she got an idea when she saw a nifty gadget for making yo-yo’s. The idea evolved and sewing ensued, interrupted by obligations of other quilts and by schooling, until one day it was a pretty pastel flimsy with a gorgeous pieced backing. This fledgling quilt waited once again while the mother gained some skills in free-motion quilting, the family moved across the country, storage mix-ups kept it locked behind many, many boxes. . . until at last, one winter, the mother finished the quilting on a pretty deviation for her daughter, chock full of a mother’s love for her wonderful young lady.

This is the tale of a long journey that started in 2010 and culminated today when I finished this label with the above story. (With the stats underneath)

What I love about this quilt:

It's *nothing* like Marissa's normal tastes, but it's special. It's almost entirely constructed from the Three Sisters "Aviary" line. From my stash I added white-on-white  for the pinwheels and a stronger green for the stems/leaves of the flowers and the center's flanges.

It's my very own design, made to spotlight the center on a twin-sized bed (which we no longer have). Post-wash size: 62 x 87 inches.  Pre-wash 65 x 93 inches. That's how much shrinkage you get between moderately heavy quilting and Hobbs Tuscany washable wool shrinkage. (washed on the delicate cycle with warm/cold water settings, dried at medium heat about 3/4 of the way, then laid out to finish drying)

The back - made from the rest of the pinwheels and what yardages we could still find for the line of fabric.

The pinwheel field with scrappy opalescent buttons.

How much the heart flowers pop. These were stitched on at the hospital when Scott had his stroke. (With a full recovery, thank goodness!)

The "eyelet" I sneaked in. I wasn't allowed to put any lace or eyelet on, so I quilted some in around each transition point.

The outer border quilting.

The messages quilted into each side. Like this one: "You make the world. . . a happier place."  You can also hunt out "Mom loves you always. . . and forever";  "Smile  . . . Sunshine"; and "Marissa is. . . Awesome".

That I did all the quilting myself - and that was a feat on a domestic!  I counted it up, and there are no less than 96 hours of quilting in this. Probably quite a bit more.

Challenges I overcame:

Getting the diagonals to match during the construction. I needed 8 panels, cut from two different orientations on the yardage, to meet around the center. I couldn't let go of getting the lines to match up properly at the seams, so I agonized over the math, almost forgetting the seam allowances, and got everything worked out somehow. If you look carefully, you can see the seam running straight down the center of this photo from the corner of the green flange.

In the center of each of the four sides, the diagonals meet in a V. That was a compromise since there wasn't enough yardage to cut the panels in a way to keep the diagonals running the same way on the entire field, as I'd originally wanted. But I really like it this way now.

Learning to Free-Motion Quilt. This round was particularly challenging to me, working with persnickety threads, 3-D flowers, and tons - TONS - of thread tales to knot and tuck.

Braving contrasting thread. I was worried that the blue and pink I chose for the bugs and petals contrasted too much on this pastel quilt. Once it crinkled up after washing, though, that factor was greatly reduced, so I'm really glad the threads stood out as much as they did.

Putting on scalloped binding, which was addressed earlier in this tutorial post.  (And check out how much the Tuscany washable wool batting crinkled up with the wash! You can see the contrast in the before-washing shot below. It's got a nice, soft feel now and doesn't smell sheep-y, if you're wondering about wool batting.)

Quilting the diagonal field. For some reason I was really freaked about quilting this, worried I was going to ruin the whole thing. I wasn't particularly happy with this element of the design to start with. I finally talked myself into understanding that an "unruined" quilt was no good at all so long as it was unfinished, and I finally got myself into gear for this last stretch. I fretted about a quilting motif that would blend with the rest of the quilt - and with all the crinkling combined with a print to begin with - you can see I didn't need to fret at all!  Those messages I quilted in on each side - you really have to search to find them. Major "where's Waldo?" effect going there. . .  And while I wish the quilt hadn't crinkled up quite so much, it did pull the feel of the diagonal field completely into harmony with the rest of the quilt. 

We still have smatterings of snow despite several days in the upper 50s. Love this view of the common-property meadow from the top of our back hill. . . 

. . . which is a great place for sledding!

It's all good.  :)

TGIFF * Link A Finish Friday at Richard's * Whoop! Whoop! * UFO Sundays