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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Blogger's Quilt Festival #2 - Run, Kitty, Run!

This is my second entry. Pop over and catch all the amazing works being shown at Amy's wonderful online quilt show!
 

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I'm glad I found out in time that we can show two quilts in the Festival, because this one really deserves to be in a show as well.
 
 
A stunned Christi  :)
 
 
This is "Run, Kitty, Run!", which I made especially for my friend back in Florida who has done so much to make my life healthier.
 
 
 
 
 
 
You see, when our two oldest kids were graduating from high school 4 years ago, Christi decided enough was enough and she was finished being morbidly obese. I suspect she had a serious medical scare, and I know the doctor told her she'd never lose enough weight without surgery.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Boy, did she show them!!  Sheer determination, running every single day (usually more than once), and a complete overhaul of her diet empowered her to drop so much weight in one year she was literally half the woman that she started out as. And soooo much healthier.
 
 
 
 
 
She used her Facebook to keep herself going. Every. Single. Day. She never missed a day of at least something. If she was sick, or if she'd had to work 20 hours, she still did something, be it only 15 minutes. And seeing her report that day in and day out FINALLY goaded/encouraged/coaxed me into climbing onto her train at the end of that year. 
 
 
 
 
 
I'm not as steady as she is - I'll do great for several days and then slip back, but you know what? Christi is always so encouraging and positive about it all, telling everyone constantly "Every Step Counts!", that you don't feel ashamed - you just start doing it again.
 
 
 
 
 
 
And here's what Christi did for me: The first day, we bought a treadmill and got it set up. I could *barely* wheeze out 20 minutes at 2.0 mph.  Now, if you're a walker/runner at all, you can understand just how pathetically out of shape that was!!  I honestly felt like I was going to have a heart attack. (As it turns out, I have Lupus, so it's tricky keeping my heart in shape, and judging by how pitiful I started out, I firmly believe I was on the straight line to a massive coronary sometime soon.) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It took me more than a year of slowly increasing the duration and the speed to get to where I could maintain 45 minutes of speed walking at 4.8 mph (which is a great clip). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
These days I've got it to where I regularly pump out between 3.5 and 5 miles 4 times a week of running/speedwalk intervals and do a recovery powerwalk in between. I just have 20 more pounds I'd like to finish dropping off, and I will be ecstatic. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In any case, I chose every element of this quilt deliberately when I made it as a special "Thank you!" for Christi. Her favorite colors are blue and white. She's ape crazy over anything Hello Kitty or Marilyn Monroe, and I found the Hello Kitty fabric first. All the other top fabrics come from my stash. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I had a hard time deciding on exactly how to execute the idea I had for the quilting. I wanted her running footprints on it, and I wanted to incorporate her now-famous line of encouragement. There was going to me no doubt in anyone's mind who knew her that this was Christi's very own quilt! I also wanted to pull the whimsy together with a traditional feel, though. I decided to get super -SUPER- brave and try to put feathers in on the blue bands. I was thrilled that they actually came out well!  My first decent feathers!!  ;D I'm pretty sure I used a dark blue Aurifil 50 wt on both the top and the bottom. I marked the spines only with a white chalk pen.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Now for the white bands.  Without too much trouble I got Christi to scan in and email the treads of her favorite running shoes. As I'd hoped, she just wondered if it was something like I was trying to match her treads with my own shoe shopping. I ended up having to size the print down a wee bit to fit in the bands aesthetically. And I wanted them to show, not get lost in the cream, so I used a darker sandy variegated rayon thread that I had around that would show up without being garish.
 
 
 
 
 
 
For all of this quilting, I used Golden Threads paper. Traced the reduced print of the treads onto one sheet, stapled that on a stack of sheets, and sewed through it all with an unloaded needle. Voila! 22 stich-through stencils.  For the words, I made a huge font on my computer and literally traced it right off the screen. 
 
 
 
 
 
You just pin the paper onto your sandwich, quilt through it, and pull the paper off. Love it for certain things!
 
 
 
 
 
 
And oh, man! Now I'm remembering the TWENTY-SIX pairs of tails I needed to tie and tuck on each one of those prints because I really wanted to keep the treads clean without trail lines from section to section.  So much work, but also entirely worth the effect here. I used the same thread to stitch in the words of her encouragement and a heart on each of the outer corners.
 
 
 
 
 
To fill in the rest of the white bands, I used the same creamy So Fine thread I'd been using in the bobbin with the rayon thread. This was all done free-hand with no marking.
 
 
 
 
 
This was a heavy throw quilt  with the minky backing, Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 batting, and dense quilting. But it came out feeling nice! It wasn't too stiff at all. (And Christi HATES the cold, which is why she just had to have that backing.)  It finished up at 59 x 59 after all the quilting.
 
 
 
 
 
And because it wasn't crazy enough already to tie and tuck all those individual tread components, I went nuts with the binding and changed the color out for each band point around the perimeter. . .   But, man, I love it!!
 
 
 
 
 
Thanks for letting me share this second quilt with you. There are a lot of real beauties linked up at the Festival, so make sure you check it out! 

28 comments:

  1. Spectacular! You are an awesome friend.

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  2. Holy moly!! I love log cabins so that would have been enough but the inspiring story and all the little detail work is incredible! And, as an occasional binding matcher, I can honestly say that the effort pays off here - you get that unbroken feeling; there is no containing or stopping the things that you two can do! Beautiful.

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  3. Wow, this quilt is amazing. I first noticed the ninding with matched the blocks and looks awesome then I saw all of the quilting! Thank you for showing a "during quilting" shot of all of the tails, sometimes you look at a quilting design and wonder how they quilted it but your picture really gave insight on how (and how much work) each design was.

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  4. It is amazing and the story behind it totally inspiring! Love the shoe prints! May use this method for something!

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  5. The detail and significance quilted into this are just amazing! It's a really stunning gift for Christi and a work of art in its own right! I loved reading about how you quilted all the different sections :)

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  6. Lyn you are amazing!! Congratulations on a truly unique piece of art and on the healthy part too! Gosh -- thanks so much for sharing. Karen

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  7. Oh how I love this quilt and its story! So fantastic. I also really love the geekery tucked in there without being IN YO FACE! Perfect. Thanks for showing this one again!

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  8. Wow thanks for sharing your story! Beautiful work and detail!!!

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  9. Wow thanks for sharing your story! Beautiful work and detail!!!

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  10. Wow thanks for sharing your story! Beautiful work and detail!!!

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  11. A beautiful quilt and quilting!
    Congratualtions Christi, what an amazing story!
    Well done to you too, Lyn!!

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  12. Awe inspiring! That's all I can say! WOW! The story and the quilt are AWE INSPIRING! Congratulations to you both and best wishes on THIS quilt in the blogger's quilt festival!

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  13. Awesome. Her story & the quilt. I can't believe the work you put into those shoes.

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  14. This is a great story and a beautiful quilt! Totally inspiring!

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  15. Amazing. Both your friend's story and how you told it in her quilt. Very impressive. I need her to help me, too.

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  16. This quilt and the story that inspired it are amazing. How very special all the way around.

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  17. Wonderful Story, and an inspiration to all of us! Your quilt is a winner on many levels :_)

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  18. This quilt is amazing! I love how you made it all about her and her journey! I can't imagine matching the binding to the colors on the sides, and quilting all of the shoe prints and incorporating them into the design! This is a lovely gift!
    Susie

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  19. Oh my gosh Lyn!!! That quilt and your story just blew me away!!! I love all the details you put in the quilting - personal details that tell their own story - just simply awesome and inspiring! Thanks for sharing :*)

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  20. WOW! simply amazing! both the quilt and your story :-) I love quilts like this. I know she will absolutely treasure this quilt!!
    Congratulations on your weight loss & getting healthier!

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  21. I loved this the first time I read about it, and it is just as stunning reading about it again!

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  22. What a great story. I love all the details you put into this quilt from the tread quilting to the binding color changes. I can imagine your friend finds something new every time she snuggles under it.

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  23. Man oh man, color me impressed - with your quilting, your dedication to using that treadmill, and your gratitude. I'm in awe with your story and the quilt.

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  24. Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment. Glad to find yours. What a gift of love. Beautiful job!

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  25. What a wonderful story! I'm inspired to get back on to my treadmill more regularly. The pictures are great also and the detail of the quilting is great! What a great job!

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  26. Wonderful quilt! Inspiring story!

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  27. Such a fabulous quilt - love the blues, the kitties, your fab quilting and of course the story behind it all!

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