Thursday, June 10, 2010

A Finish!

Snuggle
54 " x 68"

Ta Dah! It's all done. . . well, to flimsy stage anyway. You can see Dunkel is critiquing while DH holds the top up for me. This is an un-retouched photo, and hopefully pretty close to the real color. We're having rain again today, so it wasn't very bright today, but we were having a moment of "lightness" (DH's term), so we quickly took the picture.

The background color is a Cherrywood fabric and I think it's either Indigo or Cobalt. (I lost the label a long time ago!) To me, it's similar to Crayola's Midnight Blue crayon. Anyway, my point is that it's one of my favorite shades of blue. I'm so happy I had a big enough piece in my stash, and it was exactly the color I wanted. (The inspiration quilt is really kind of a navy blue but it's close to this color.) The 9-patches were made with some of the fabrics from two Cherrywood grab bags.

The 9-patches were free-pieced using a number of different methods to achieve that. As I got more of the blocks made, and starting running out of fabric, the 9-patches got wonkier. I think I like the wonkiest ones the best. You can see some close-ups of some of the 9-patches here.

This came out a bigger size than I thought it would, and I'm happy with that. DH is 6 foot tall, and he can hide behind it pretty well, don't you think? It's big enough to really snuggle in!


Here is a close-up shot of my free-pieced letters. The E is actually a lower-case E, but it's hard to see that dark-colored piece that makes it so. It was supposed to be an upper-case E, but I got confused in the middle of making the letter! I suppose I probably shouldn't admit that in public. . . .

And here's a closeup of the border. This was my solution to meld the two fabrics in the borders together. I don't know if you can see it very well in the top photo, but there's the Cherrywood fabric in the right-hand border and the dotted fabric in the left-hand border. The two fabrics go around the corners and then meet in the top and bottom borders. Even though this is subtle, this was what I came up with to avoid just butting them up next to each other. This kind of looks "interlocked" to me.

Due to the size of this quilt top, I won't be quilting this, but sending it to my favorite long-arm quilting artist, Shari. I know she'll do a fabulous job for me.


I really love this quilt, and I'm so happy I took this challenge. A huge "Thanks!" to Tonya for hosting this challenge. And, in spite of my whining and stalling, it was a lot of fun. It made me stretch and learn. After all, that's the point of a challenge. And if you haven't yet visited the blog for the Liberated Amish Challenge, go right now and take a look. There are so many wonderful quilts that everyone has made, and wonderful stories about them.


One last thought. . . . if you have the opportunity to participate in a challenge, I urge you to take it! It's good to challenge yourself, learn what you're capable of, and learn new things.

15 comments:

  1. This looks super. I love the lettering especially. Well done!

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  2. Love it!! Yay, it's done!! Thanks for sharing the process!

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  3. Love the wonky 9 patch blocks, but especially the letters. I have been watching others make them and really need to try it.

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  4. It is fabulous! I really love the "snuggle." Those letters are kinda hard to do, in my opinion. You chose the perfect word.

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  5. Your quilt turned out beautiful. love the border. I also think that taking a challenge makes you stretch and ultimately a better quilter.

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  6. This is a great quilt! I love the wonkiness (you can use a lot of scraps that way) and the different borders (another way to use what one has) and it all looks so planned. Inspirational.

    Angie

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  7. Thanks for sharing your process. I had a hard time with some letters, so I'm going to print yours off for a "road map". One question, did you applique the vine on the border or piece it in? I love how some blocks have a 3d look to them, the serpentine in the border really adds to this. I love it!

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  8. you did great! I love the wonkiest ones best too. running out of fabric really helps with that. fabulous quilt

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  9. It is a beautiful piece of work, I love the muted colours and that border!

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  10. It looks great! I especially like the way you inserted the word 'snuggle' inbetween the applique on the border. Or perhaps I should say the way you broke up the line of applique to bring attention to the word. Either way, it's wonderful! Congratulations!

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  11. Hi, it is Barbara from Brushes and Cloth ... what a beautiful piece of work, I am glad you are finished ... I find it such a great feeling of completion. You should be proud!
    Best wishes,
    Barbara

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  12. Love the Snuggle quilt! I like your nine patches. Great job!

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  13. Great quilt! Terrific colors and I love the border!

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  14. looks great!
    I love that you put snuggle as the word on the quilt
    hope the quilt gets used a lot and you snuggle under it!
    I agree I need to take one of Tonya's challenges, maybe next time.

    Kathie

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  15. Well girl....it's just too cute for words...but I'll say YIPPEE!!! Your letters are Fab and I love the shading you created using different fabrics!! NOW....GET IT FINISHED!!!! LOLOL

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