And finally, the last of the Christmas 2009 gifts! And possibly the best, too: a lap-sized quilt for my husband! I'm sure you other crafters know how difficult it is to surprise your spouse with a handmade gift. It's not that it would be impossible for me--in the past I've shut myself into the sewing room and told him not to come in--but then he knows that I'm making him something, even if he doesn't know what. So I planned ahead, big time: this entire quilt was made in July, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when Rob was gone all evening teaching a night class.
The pattern is my go-to one: Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs. The fabrics are all Katie Jump Rope by Denyse Schmidt, except for the skinny border, which I think is a Dimple. As usual, the quilt came together really quickly. And those Free Spirit fabrics? So soft!
The quilting design actually took the longest--a good 8 hours! I think it took me a lot less to hand-stitch the binding on. For the quilting I chose to mimic the plaid of the rest of the quilt and pull in all of the colors. I drew a grid 5" apart and then quilted it with brown thread. Then I switched to green and quilted lines 1/4" away from the brown on each side, then orange, then blue. I stopped at the brown inner border and did one full line of quilting in the outer border so I would have squares at the corners. Even though it took a LONG time, I really like the effect. It's subtle, but it pulls in all the colors and adds a great texture.
The result? I completely surprised Rob on Christmas Eve with a handmade quilt that he (and Iris) totally loves. Sweet.
2 comments:
Awww, it's so rewarding to see him love his quilt so! What a great lap quilt for your husband!
It's fantastic! The quilting is awesome - what a great detail to add! And I'm just triple impressed that you got it finished in time and in secret. :-)
Post a Comment