Some background:
John and I had been planning a visit to his hometown of Eureka, CA for over a year before we were finally able to make it happen this last weekend. It had been 5 years since we'd last been down! It's a 12 hour drive, and we knew it would cost at least $400 just in gas, thus the wait. Then gas prices dropped, and his grandmother offered to host us at her house, and we said let's do it! So we drove down Thursday, and came back Sunday, then suffered all this last week from lack of sleep and exhaustion. The price you pay!n
Now, one of the things I was most excited for was to meet our niece, Eryka, for the first time since she was only 1 month old the last time we saw her. I decided the Saturday before we left that I wanted to take her a quilt, as her 5th birthday is next month. Since John and I are working on keeping our budget under control I decided to try to work completely from the fabric I have on hand. Turns out I had a charm pack from Southern Fabric called Textured Basics that I had ordered with a sale-priced charm thinking I would like the colors more, and it turned out it was a different palette than I care for. But it is perfect for a 5 year old! I like bright colors when used with black borders, so I used up the rest of the black yardage I had on hand. I see why people invest in solid jellyrolls, it would save quite a bit of time in the assembly process.
We had all sorts of things happening that weekend, so I was squeezing in 10 minutes here and there throughout the weekend and the 3 days at work.
I tried using my bodkin to help keep the fabric in line all the way to the needle, and wow! All those people on YouTube really DO know what their talking about! LOL Seriously though, when I tried leading the fabric in with my fingers it kept wandering off course, and with the bodkin it stayed where it needed to and I was able to keep my seams laying the way I wanted them to.
I had some assistance, they were quite confused about this "thing" in the middle of the racetrack (aka our living room)
I had the top finished by Tuesday, then started on the back, which I had decided would be made with recycled jeans so she can use it outdoors with confidence. I completed the back Wednesday morning, and ended up spray basting because I had just used all my basting pins on my log cabin quilt. Turns out, spray basting is really nice! It also doesn't stick to denim as well, FYI. I assume it was because I didn't use quite enough, or just because the weight of the material.
I asked John to take a couple photos of me quilting, as proof that I really did do this :)
I used black Aurifil thread on top and in the bobbin, remembered to put in a denim needle, dropped my feed dogs, and lowered my tension to 2. It is really nice not having to work around basting pins.
I have learned a lot from following Lori at The Inbox Jaunt, and highly recommend her site.
You may notice that I am wearing gloves that are not the ones you may normally see for quilters, that's because this is what I had on hand (ha ha), they are gardening gloves that are form fitting and they breathe. I feel like they are a lot of help with maintaining control of my quilts as I move them around.
You can see thought that I didn't have problems with the back tucking on me, it actually held tight pretty well! So I started the quilting process at 2pm on Wednesday, and finished putting the binding on (completely by machine) at 11:30pm. I did stop to help pack suitcases and made dinner too. I tried to add up the total hours on this quilt, 2.5 hours cutting strips and the jeans out, 3 hours piecing front and back, 5 hours quilting, and 1 hour for the binding. Of course, all those numbers are approximate, I may have been even slower, or maybe faster! It's so hard to keep track when you're doing all these other things in between. But still, only 12 hours total to bring together a great picnic quilt for a 5 year old?
You can see here how I used the legs of the jeans to create the backing. After I cut them apart, I sorted the pieces into two piles in a color order so it was kinda dark-light-dark etc., then sewed them end to end. Then I cut I so each row would be the same length and have some extra for the quilting process. I ended up having just enough, it's as if it were meant to be!
And here's pretty little Eryka, being a good model for Aunt Brandy. She opened it while we were driving to Sequoia Park, and I loved it when she started tracing the quilting and said "Oh, I just love the pretty design" I finally understood this statement: My heart sang when she said that. :) Complete validation for my hard work (and last minute decision making).
Here is John and Joe (his brother) as we walked down the jetty. Joe is his younger brother, and Eryka's daddy. We were so glad to see him as a father, he's doing such a great job.
And Uncle John getting some fun times in with Eryka! The trip went well, we got to see his parents in a healthy state of mind (recovering drug addicts) and visit with his grandma and her sister, Aunt Margaret, who is 92, and also spend quality time with Joe and Eryka. We even saw John's best friend from high school for a little bit! Also, the guys let me visit the local quilt shops, so here's a shout out to Bunny Hop, Ocean Waves Quilts, Fortuna Fabrics & Crafts, and Eureka Fabrics.
I am really proud of myself for making this quilt all with things on hand, I didn't even have to purchase batting for once! I made sure to buy a large batting with a Christmas gift card while it was on sale at JoAnn Fabrics so I would have it on hand for my table runners and such, and this took a good sized chunk of it, but it was totally worth it. For future reference, use at least 2 layers of batting if you are having jeans as the backing, the seams are quite thick and poke through a single layer easily.
This quilt measures 45" x 45" finished, and I signed it on the front, with a dedication to Eryka and the date.
I will sign off with a photo of our celebratory pie in honor of Pi Day (3/14/15 aka 3.1415926) which John and I ate at 9:26 this morning:
Have a super sparkly day!
~Brandy
