At Last

Oh do I have a big reveal to share.  One of my OWN projects!!!!  Seriously, you all might want to make sure you are sitting down for this one. 🙂  I know I have whined mentioned from time to time that I did NOT have a quilt for my bed.  I always make quilts and give them away or just make smallish quilts for myself, but never take the time to make one for myself.  Now I have a king size bed, which is a commitment in itself to make a quilt that big.  I must confess, it is not quilted yet, but it is pieced…that’s huge for me.  I was away last week on a quilt retreat.  I will share more on that later, but I pieced nearly non-stop to get this quilt top pieced!!  I will be quilting an allover design on it, so the quilting will not be too far behind.  I had to go back through my blog to see when I started this quilt…June of 2011.  Nearly 2 years ago!!!  It started out as a lap size quilt, so it has made quite a transformation in “sew” many ways.  Let me introduce you to At Last, which has been appropriately renamed from Tool Shed…

 Super scrappy.  All in reproduction fabric.  I love it!!!!!!

 It is a giant.  Finished size is 104″x104″.

 I had a difficult time capturing the quilt all in one photo.  I referred to my quilt as a “boat sail” as I was putting it all together!!  Sewing this on my little retreat sewing table was an arm workout like non other!!  This quilt did not start out this big or with this layout.  The original quilt design is a gorgeous pattern called  “Tool Shed” by Kim Brackett of Magnolia Bay Quilts.  The quilt in the book was pieced and quilted by Darlene of Quilting Daze.

The quilt originally finished at around 54″x62″.  The pattern is in a great book that uses 2.5″ strips to create quilts.  My version is just a bit different. 🙂  Scrap-Basket Sensations is the book.  This is an awesome book for using 2.5″ strips.  Lots of great designs!!

I fell in love with the lap size quilt as soon as I saw it.  Initially, I planned on making it all out of Jo Morton fabric, but changed my mind to a variety of reproduction fabric…making it super scrappy.  I really admire Kim Diehl quilts.  I realized it was her fabric color choices that I was really drawn to.  She likes to incorporate cheddars, pinks, purples and golds with the usually muddy reproduction colors (trust me I love me some muddy reproductions too).  So that is what I did with my quilt and I LOVE it!!!

There were many reasons I changed from a lap size to a king size, but one of the reasons…I made a bunch of blocks “wrong.”  This is what the “Tool Shed” block looks like and quilt layout.  If you go back and look at my quilt, there are the original blocks with some “star” blocks mixed in.

I didn’t even realize it until I pieced a bunch!!  After a little set back, I decided I would incorporate those blocks because I really liked them into the quilt.  I added sashing between the blocks and decided a piano key border would look great and keep with the scrappy theme.  Plus, I ended up with a ton of strips left over that were perfect for a scrappy border.

I made a total of 81 blocks.   The blocks went together easily with the Angler 2.  You can read about it in my original post here.

I was more than pleased at how beautifully my quilt turned out!

   I am by no means a designer!!!  That’s for sure.  I graphed out my layout, figured out how many strips, and blocks I would need.  To my surprise and shock, my quilt came out exactly the size I had graphed out!!!!  Oh and for the record, I had to buy the background fabric 3 times!!!  LOL!!!  It is a Jo Morton print from 2 years ago that I was fortunate enough to find online!!  The last time I ordered plenty and have some left!!

As soon as it is quilted, I will reveal the horrendous thing that has been on my bed.  I recently repaired a hole in it!!!!  LOL!!!! My friend Patti said her dogs sleep with better!!!!  Yikes.