Design Floor Friday - The Emergency Quilt

Welcome to another edition of Design Floor Friday!!  It's been quite some time since I've added a post to this series.  Today, I'm back with a tale of a very special quilt.  It was a super speedy finish because I was a quilter on a mission!.  The quilt is something new, something old, and something unexpected, all wrapped up into one.  

Let me explain...

You see, my friend had a house fire last week.  It was a total loss.  I was devastated for their family.  When quilters face tragedy, we make a quilt!  That's just what I did when I discovered that I had nothing appropriate ready for gifting to a pre-teen boy.

I knew just what to do, though...

I gathered every Duke shirt in the house and planned a pleasing layout:

On Sunday...

He's a Duke fan and my family just happened to have YEARS worth of Duke T-shirts saved for a quilt.  During last week's Zoom call with Knittingsuek, I deconstructed the shirts:

On Monday...

I went upstairs before work to fire up the heat press:

With time remaining and all the shirts pressed, I cut them to size:

The next step had to wait until my work day was done...

It was then that I went back to the "design bed" for an updated layout, as the proportions were wrong on the 3 x 5 plan.  Going with 4 x 4 felt much better:

Back in the studio, I made the necessary adjustments to the smaller shirts...

And created a feature block for the recipient:

What time is it, Joyful???

Time to stitch the shirts into a quilt top.  First one half...

Followed by pairs of blocks for the second half...

But it was later in the evening than I typically sew, yet the quilt top was done.  Or was it?!  Here's where I left it on Monday night:

HINT:  Do NOT sew later than you should!!!

On Tuesday...

With quilt top (and seam ripper in hand), I headed to work, took out the offending seam that I decided I couldn't live with, and reassembled the quilt top when I got home:

SEW much better when the quilt turns out like the plan!!  The completed quilt top measures 64" square.

By Tuesday night, the quilt was loaded on the longarm and ready for quilting:

ETA...  Sending out a HUGE THANK YOU to Suzanne in Alaska for allowing me to use backing fabric provided for another project.  Please forgive me for neglecting to add this prior to releasing the post).  You saved my from having to take the extra time that it would have required to locate (or purchase) and piece the necessary yardage.  There was even enough leftover to use for binding!  :o))

On Wednesday...

Even though I was scheduled to work late, I left work at lunchtime to knock out what I refer to as semi-custom quilting on the quilt, with the hopes of finishing it before the arranged time for my weekly Zoom call with LeeAnna @ Not Afraid of Color:

Mission accomplished!!

Once our call was over, the quilt had a date with my rotary cutter so that it could be squared up:

After dinner, it was back up to the studio to apply the binding, but I found that I couldn't stop there!  I simply HAD to stitch the binding down, as well:

 After quilting, trimming and binding, the quilt measures 63" x 64" square-ish.

With that done, the quilt was washed, dried, and ready for gifting, but some better photos to share with you needed to wait until morning:

 After a its tumble through the washer and dryer, the quilt measures 61" x 62" square-ish.

And one final shot of the Emergency T-Quilt, casually tossed on the porch swing:

I'm surprised at how quickly this came together!  Never before have I completed such a large project SEW fast.  It was truly a labor of love and  I'm looking forward to delivering the quilt over the weekend.  Here's hoping he likes it!  I feel fairly confident that he will.

ETA...  Sending out a HUGE THANK YOU to Suzanne in Alaska for allowing me to use backing fabric provided for another project.  Please forgive me for neglecting to add this prior to releasing the post).  You saved my from having to take the extra time that it would have required to locate (or purchase) and piece the necessary yardage.  There was even enough leftover to use for binding!  :o))

Until next time...

Wrap someone in a QUILTY hug!!! 

Sharing with Alycia

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Finished (Or Not) Friday

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Whooping it up with Sarah

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Confessions of a Fabric Addict

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Visit Andree

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Free Motion Mavericks

Design Floor Friday - (Virtual) Sew Day Edition

Welcome to a new edition of Design Floor Friday!!  It's been QUITE some time since I've released a post in this series.  Honestly, this might better be called Design TABLE Friday or Design WALL Friday.  Oh, well... Design Floor, it is.

What is this about Joyful???

I'm here with a look at the (Virtual) Sew Day that I shared with my friends last weekend:

Britt...

Made green sub-units for her UnBegun Challenge:

As we talked, I reminded her that she had a darker quilt waiting to be quilted for her bed:

She was amused to find that it was also made of Hourglass blocks:

Britt was pleased to complete these blocks for her green round:

Helena showed some of her Color Collective fabrics...

Worked on a quilt inspired by a work of art:

And was pleased to finish getting the quilt top together:

She went on to assemble a few more of her Color Collective blocks:

Photo Currently Unavailable!!

Sue showed off a kit that recently arrived in the mail:

It's not what she had planned to work on today, but plans changed:

Sue reminded Britt that these fabrics would soon be coming to her:

She shared one of the lovely Lenox mugs she got from the local Buy Nothing group:

She did some planning and some sewing before...

Getting frustrated enough by having to move piles around the room before coming up with an easy fix!  This table was in the next room just waiting to be pulled into service:

I was prepared with comfy clothing in the RSC Color of the Month:

My project was Round 4 of the Stay at Home Round Robin:

I sewed:

I cut and (remarkably) even pinned:

Hugs and Kisses were the end result:

Oh!  That and one lone Wonky Star:

Yes, I know you probably heard all about it, but it's what I did.

One last photo before I had to leave to go make an IP Chocolate Cheesecake for our Valentine's dessert the next day.  Four happy, but exhausted quilters:

Until next time...

Quilt til you wilt!!!

Design Floor Friday - Nature's Progress

Welcome to another edition of Design Floor Friday!!  You will never believe what I did this past weekend.  I completed the top of a baby quilt the very week that baby was born!  Remarkable, right?

Have a look...

I shared a sneak peek on Wednesday, but after cutting some components:

The remainder of the blocks for the border...

... Of my great nephew's baby quilt were pieced on Saturday:

I planned for the "spacer" to be between the panel and the geese, but it looked better as an outer border:

I'm pleased to present the completed top of Nature, Baby! 

Now, I just need to add the borders to Rainbow, Baby! and get them both quilted and mailed off to those sweet babies (before their first birthdays.)

Until next time...

Progress is SEW good!!!

Design Floor Friday - April Sew/Craft Friends-zy

Welcome to a new edition of Design Floor Friday!!!  Earlier this month, I braved the first Sew/Craft Friends-zy event in many months.  With everyone fully vaccinated, the church where we meet finally opened up for a select number of people.  I'm not sure what that number is, but there were fewer than a dozen crafters in attendance.  Special thanks to Tiffany for arranging the event!

Three Super Scrapbookers at the one end of the hall...

And Five Busy Quilters at the other...

What was everyone working on, Joyful???

Lisa was working on a 20 year old UFO:

For the first example of design floor use, Carol was layering a quilt:

Tiffany cut out a new class sample:

Lois worked on a UFO...

... Before switching to a donation quilt:

Lisa was amazed that all the pieces were still intact:

Let the pinning begin:

The picture of organization:

Lisa used the design floor to assess how far she got before abandoning this gorgeous Broken Star project made from her DH's old shirts:

Since Britt opted out, I brought my die cutter to work on the triangles for our Swap Quilt, so she would be with us in spirit:

With pieces all cut and labeled, Tiffany is ready to sew:

Lois is the picture of productivity today, as she moves on to her 3rd project:

Lisa is making more diamonds from her carefully preserved strip sets:

And...

The main reason this was released as a Design Floor Friday post:

I used the open floor space to test out several layouts for my H2H project, including this one (using the 20 full blocks I've made) which would require choosing an alternate block or background fabric:

Set like Sarah's instructions, I would need to make more blocks:

Finally, this 32 block option needing a few more "logs" added:

It was good to see what I'm up against and over the course of the last few weeks, I've worked on finishing those blocks and squaring up the ones that have been brought up to size.  I'm getting close to being able to choose a layout based on the requirement of my chosen charity.

Looking forward...

This event was not without stress, as it felt strange to be in a group of people after so many months of "self-isolation", but I'm excited to see these friends again in another couple of weeks.  YOU can look forward to another update sometime after then.  There may even be a few more quilting friends working away that day, as we move toward a return to "normal."

Until next time...

Go SEW!!!