Beverly's Quilt Finish

What was begun as a quilt for me evolved into a quilt for a childhood friend. Beverly is the older sister of my best friend from childhood. She is in assisted living in my hometown and according to my friend, still leads an active life in her wheelchair. However, due to some complications from diabetes, she is currently in a physical rehab facility and hoping to get back to her home soon. In February I read about a wheelchair quilt on Louise's blog and began thinking about Beverly, and I couldn't stop thinking about her. Now that I know she is experiencing health issues, I'm glad I made the decision to gift her the quilt instead of keeping it for myself.

Inspiration vintage quilt from Instagram

This "pattern" was my attempt to recreate a vintage quilt I saw on Instagram. It was scrappy and composed of nine-patch blocks made anchored by cornerstones and separated by sashing rectangles.

This was a fun quilt for me, from doing the quilt math to picking fabrics. Most of the fabrics came from scraps or stash, but I did purchase the cornerstone and binding fabrics. My husband (and occasional quilt model) has become a surprisingly good consultant in choosing fabrics for bindings and backings, and he picked out the binding at my local quilt shop.

My quilting was a combination of a wide zig-zag stitch and grid quilting. The inspiration for zig-zag came from this pretty quilt on Preeti's blog. If you squint, it looks a little like hand-stitching. I employed the same zig-zag on the binding. Zig-zagging is fast but it really eats bobbin thread!

Backing is the same as the cornerstones

Quilt model Jack

Beverly's Quilt details:
Finished size: 42 x 60 inches
Pattern: Nine-patch blocks made with 2-1/2 inch squares; 3-1/2 inch cornerstones; 6-1/2 x 3-1/2 inch sashing strips

Fabrics
Front: Scraps and stash
Backing and cornerstones: Geraniums by Edyta Sitar for Andover
Binding: Heartfelt by Kansas Troubles Quilters for Moda

Superior Threads
Piecing: #50 So Fine 502 Genoa Gray
Quilting: #50 So Fine in 492 Pale Yellow

I'm linking again to Myra's Stress-Free QAL on Busy Hands Quilts.

Beverly's Quilt Flimsy

I've had so many squirrels come my way in the past few months, you probably don't remember this squirrel that came to visit last year. You can read about it here and here, but long story short, I saw a vintage quilt on Instagram I wanted to recreate.

This is the vintage Instagram quilt

I spent some time carefully putting nine-patch squares together before I realized I wanted a more scrappy look. I ditched the "careful" in exchange for "fun" and away I went.

The nine-patch blocks are framed by strips and cornerstones. I'm happy to say that thanks to enthused encouragement from Diann and Janine, I decided on this yummy pink vintage-y looking fabric for the cornerstones. My husband suggested a dark red/burgundy for the binding and even offered to take me to buy what I needed, since I don't have the perfect color in my stash. Can't ask for a better offer than that!

I had intended to keep this quilt for myself, even sentimentally naming it Cottonwood after my favorite childhood tree. But after seeing this post by Louise at Quilt Odyssey, I decided to gift it to the older sister of my childhood best friend. Beverly is wheelchair bound but active in her assisted living apartment, and I think she might like a lap quilt. I'm reserving the name "Cottonwood" for a future quilt and renaming this one simply "Beverly's quilt". I hope to finish it this week!

I am sharing this post with Cynthia's Oh Scrap! Go and check out all the scrappy goodies!

Cottonwood Quilt - Nine-Patch Squirrel Part 2

This is the squirrel that came to stay. My last post has the details of how this squirrel first came to be. Now that it is a full-blown project it deserves a name, and I chose the name "Cottonwood". The farm where I grew up had a cottonwood tree that holds many happy memories for me - from playing beneath its shade, to seeing it silhouetted against the sky at night during lightning storms, to watching "cotton" shed during early summer. Seems like an apt name for a happy quilt!

Excel spreadsheet instead of graph paper!

Bevquiter123 on Instagram has been very patient with my questions about block sizes for this glorious vintage quilt that first caught my eye. I was wrong on my initial impression of each block measuring about 12 inches. There is no "12-inch block", just nine-patch blocks separated by strips of rectangles and squares. With the blocks finishing at 6 inches, rectangles finishing at 6 x 3 inches, and squares finishing a 3 inches, I estimate that 7 nine-patch blocks across and 8 down separated by rectangle/square strips will make a lap=sized quilt.

Some of the blocks will be balanced in color and pattern, but others will just be scrappy. My comfort zone balks at this, but I'm actually finding it to be fun. It takes a lot less time!

Original quilt with pink squares

Dotted cream squares

Pink squares

The original quilt was "anchored" by pink squares. I have not yet decided whether to go with the neutral dotted cream or the pink-ish fabric. My comfort zone tendencies are to go with neutral, since the other fabric strips will be very busy, but then I look at the original quilt and I'm tempted to be a wild girl.

Rosie inspecting my antibiotics

It is nice to be back in the sewing room for longer stretches of time. August was a month of fighting a really bad cold that wouldn't go away (kind of like the squirrel!). Weight loss and breathing issues finally sent me to my doctor last week. He ordered a chest x-ray and antibiotics and a chest CT is scheduled in a couple of weeks. My recovery has been slow and my energy level sapped, but I'm finally starting to have days of feeling almost normal - yay!

Our weather has been drastically affected by the dreaded late summer high pressure dome, with very little rain during July and August and now into September. We have some chances of rain this week, so I plan to perform my rain dance today. Hurry up Fall!

A Nine-Patch Squirrel

It all started with this post on Instagram by @bevquilter123. She had been gifted a vintage quilt, and I just loved it all - the vintage-y look, the simple blocks, the scrappiness, and the coziness of it. I tried in vain to find a pattern but finally took my very poor quilt math skills and figured one out that finishes at 12-1/2 inches. After I finished the block, I asked Bev if she would measure one of the quilt blocks for me, and she posted that each block measured 11-3/8 inches. That's close enough for me!

The most similar block I could find was a Dutch Nine-Patch on Quilter's Cache, but it has squares all around instead of rectangles and squares.

After spending some time locating my graph paper (why did I hide it from myself?) I sketched a block and assigned dimensions. For the nine-patch in the center I cut nine 2-1/2 inch squares, and for the frame I cut four 3-1/2 inch corner squares and four 3-1/2 x 6-1/2 inch rectangles. It took me longer to pick fabric from my scraps than anything else!

I love the Tim Holtz pop bottle cap fabric in the center

Although I like the final result, I want future blocks to be more scrappy, like the vintage quilt. Unfortunately my scrap bins hold scraps that are usually not big enough, so I may have to resort to my stash.

In spite of a pile of HSTs waiting to be trimmed for my current project, I may still pursue this squirrel!

I am joining Sandra at MMM quilts for DrEAMi! (Drop Everything And Make It).