MintE: A Finished Quilt

I don't do commission quilts. I don't enjoy it. Quilting is a hobby for me and having someone try to dictate my time or creative process ruins the fun. I made an exception for my dear friend several years ago when she promised to pay for everything and let me make all the decisions. 

Then my sister asked me about making a quilt for a close friend of hers for a baby shower she was hosting. I wasn't thrilled about the idea but my sister agreed to paid. I told her she couldn't afford me. The problem was that once she told me the colours and idea I couldn't get it out of my head. So I agreed, though I charged her much, much less than it was worth. What she paid didn't even cover fabric, but I did make her buy the batting and ship it to me. Thanks Amazon!

So here is MintE, a quilt were the blocks were signed by people who attended the baby shower and then I supplemented those with whole, 50/50 and 4-patch blocks in the baby's nursery colours- mint and charcoal.

The fabrics are pretty and light and not too babyish, which I love in a baby quilt.

The name of the quilt comes from the primary colour, mint, and the fact that my sister requested I incorporate the letter "E" somehow as both of the parents have E names and the new baby will also have an E name. 

The backing is mostly this organic bear print I picked up when one of my LQSs was closing and all fabric was on sale.

This "E" in Lizzy House Pearl Bracelets in a special little personalized touch.

I will be passing this on to my sister, who will deliver this to the expectant mom (due in May). I hope the baby gets lots of use out of it. And remind me not to do more commission quilts.

Chatter: A Finished Quilt

I was lucky enough to participate in a Birthday Bonus Club in 2016 which consisted of us (a group of Canadian women) sending 50 2.5" blocks to each of the members in the club during their birthday month. So last August when it was my turn to request the kind of fabric I wanted for my squares I knew what I wanted- text prints. This proved to be harder for some than others, but the rule was you had to follow the instructions (hard for me on the months people requested batiks!) so they started flooding in.

This quilt has been finished for over a month but getting the time to take pictures proved challenging. Here it is, finally, my finished quilt, Chatter:

Each block is a 9-patch with text prints for most of the block save for a different coloured Kona solid in each centre.

 There is one white square (check the yellow row) to represent silence within all the "noise" of this text quilt. I also used some Ikea Nummer fabric for the borders to bring it up to a size that made me happy. This quilt is in heavy rotation on our couch now.

You can see some of the diversity of the prints I got. Numbers, french, newspapers, symbols. I love the cacophony. 

I straight (ish) line quilted through each of the blocks right down the centre. Functional and mimics the grid nature of this quilt.

The backing is a Heather Ross quilt from her Tiger Lily line that I got for a ridiculous price. I was going to put another print fabric on the back and decided against it. The binding, however, is a newsprint text print.

I still have hundreds and hundreds of text squares that I will need to decide what to do with, but I am content that my original vision has come to fruition!