Stone Arrow: A Finished Quilt

There are times when a quilt sticks in your head and you can't get it out of there until you make it. When a dear friend mentioned to me that she wanted to commission me to make quilts for her two little boys' "big beds" and that she wanted the quilts to be dark grey I could not get the idea of a Pow Wow quilt from Cluck Cluck Sew in assorted greys out of my head.

In fact, I started sending her texts with pictures and ideas the day after she mentioned it. I would normally not make a quilt for someone on order. This was different in a few ways:

1. I love her to pieces.

2. She gave me complete creative freedom. She said "I trust you."

3. She was willing to pay for all the materials.

These parameters allowed me to give my time and creativity but still be able to afford to make two double sized quilts!

The first I will show you is Stone Arrow. It is for her elder son (who just turned three). He has an "E" name. I love this quilt so much, I can't even express how thrilled I am with how it turned out.

Front of quilt. It is quite big. The pattern only goes up to a twin size so I had to modify the pattern myself. The background white is Kona White (as always).

Fabrics used include: Denyse Schmidt grey eyelet, Madrona Road by Violet Craft, Juggling Summer by Moda, Ikat in grey by V&Co., Here Fishy Fishy by Heather Mulder Peterson for Henry Glass and Co., Minimalista by AGF, Feather by Alison Glass, Bella by Lotta Jansdotter, Pearl Bracelets by Lizzy House, Dumb Dot by Michael Miller, Botanics by Carolyn Friedlander, X+ by Alison Glass, Bike Path by Alison Glass, Remix Zig Zag in grey by Ann Kelle, Peppered Cotton

The back is an Art Gallery fabric called Pointelle in Shade.

My favourite part is the "E" done in tone-on-tone Pearl Bracelets using a tutorial from the Moda tutorials that went around the blogosphere a while back.

Doesn't it look so awesome bundled up? I used Art Gallery Squared Elements in Carbon for the binding (my go-to print for binding these days). I straight line quilted horizontally along each row and then did double lines down each vertical strip. I then did FMQ squares-in-squares for the white borders. All done with white Aurafil on the top and light grey Aurafil in the bobbin.

I was thrilled to bring this to the mom, R. She absolutely loved it, and the fabric choices. She loves the pattern and after admiring both quilts she cried! Stay tuned for my next post which will be the quilt I made for the younger brother, J. I made sure to take shots of the quilts together since they are meant to be a pair without matching.

The mom did say that she hopes they have their quilts for the rest of their lives and that she can imagine these quilts lasting them into adulthood because they aren't babyish in any way. And the dad gave me a high five for making "boy" quilts (he is generally anti-quilt because in his experience they are always girly and flowery).

It was a bit sad to say goodbye to a quilt that I think turned out so beautifully, but I love this family so much that I was also excited to see it go "home."

Lynn