Extreme Quilting!

Well, I can check this off of my bucket list  . . .

 . . . and I enjoyed every minute.

You have heard about Extreme Sports, right?  After wrangling this heavy duty 15 pound quilt over, under and through my quilting frames and then North, South, East and West over the ironing table to pin the binding and then once again through my Bernina to stitch the binding--it dawned on me that this must be Extreme Quilting!  I have done lots of denim quilts but never one this large and never one that was backed with Cordura!  <-----Check it out!

I have some special friends that asked me if I could quilt Cordura with denim.  Um...since I had never heard of it, I didn't know. They sent a sample and I gave it a try a few months ago. No problem. She had been working on this massive denim top for a long time.   He told me it would be about 90"x 120."  Just right to fit inside an 8x10 tent or just make a great camping quilt in general.

I met them for lunch a few weeks ago and scribbled out his design plan right down to the orange thread.  He had a request for each corner:

1. His name
2. Old fashioned snowshoes
3. A canoe
4. Hiking Boots

When I have a bunch of ideas but no exact plan, I never know just how it will all turn out, or even how I will make it happen . . . until I have a few weeks to think it over.

So, Tuesday, when I sent a text to my friends letting them know I was working on their quilt, he asked me if I was "screaming" yet?  I replied, "No, but I am using up a extreme amount of chocolate!"

Here is what developed:

I needed a way to enlarge a letter-size clip art picture to roughly 24 x 24 inches.  I drew a one-inch grid over the picture and then drew a 3-inch grid on a large sheet of news print.  That way I could just enlarge the drawing block by block. Easy peasy.

Then I cut out the enlarged picture and used it to outline the design in chalk on the quilt top.
Here are the hiking boots  . . .

. . . and here they are after tracing the outline with school chalk.

After quilting.

Here they are on the back.  

Canoe

 Snowshoes

Name.

Each design faces out to the corner, so no matter how you have the quilt turned, as you face it, the emblems are right side up.

Since it was so massive, I decided to continue the theme by placing a 26" compass in the center.

Our first desire was to quilt a background with oak leaves and acorns, but it was too intricate for the heavy fabrics and seams. So, I tried for a pond water type of meander with a few swirls where the fish are jumping. 

I turned the back over to the front for a 1.5 inch self binding and used a open and sturdy variation of my Bernina's blanket stitch.

. . . and, I think the 3 of us made an extremely great team!

  

Out and About

Most of you know that we live on a wheat farm in Southern Idaho.

We have lived here with this view for 37 years.

 Grandmother's Old Fashioned roses planted for 3 generations.
Now, I will be quiet and let you smell the roses. 

 Copper Roses

Red and Black Floral

I really hate to send this one back to my customer--I enjoyed every minute of looking at it on my frame.

This outer border was 10 inches, so I used 8 inches for feathers and then added some bead board.

Freehand twirly flowers in the centers.  I love this little checkered fabric! 

This companion print on the back is the perfect finish! 

Forgotten Treasures

Ok everyone, how long has it been since you've seen any of this?

Yup, it's a 36 inch piece of fabric!

 How many of you ever bought a fabric Made in the USA?

 Woops, it has a flaw. I remember buying fabric in Penny's Department store.

 Here is another piece from Montgomery Ward

Wozers!  This one is marked half price at ~12.5 cents/yard.

Let me tell you how I came to have these gems!  A friend called me to see if I would like to look through 4 huge bags of fabrics she acquired when she helped her niece clean out a relative's home. She knew I did Quilts of Valor and charity quilts.  ... and well, have any of us ever turned down a chance to look through free fabric?!?

After sorting through it all, I brought about half home.  This is only the cotton fabrics.  The tall pile in the back is flannel yardage--great for quilt backings. Some of these are 4-5 yards each. I left her with all the wool, polyester (good luck there) and other selections of fabrics that I couldn't use.

Most of it is 45" and very usable.

Yay, look at all the charity quilts and QOVs I can make from these!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She also talked me into taking this bag of double wedding ring pieces--yes, this entire pile is sections of double wedding ring blocks, partial blocks and cut wedges.

 I got home and thought, what have I done?  I will just have to donate this to good will...

Such a shame to let this go to waste.

Aww....look at all that cute vintage fabric!  The right person could really do this justice!

 The sewn sections seem to have good stitches and nice 1/4 inch seams.

I have decided to auction off this whole pile of Double Wedding Ring blocks and block pieces--with the proceeds going to purchase batting for more Quilts of Valor.  To all my blogging friends, if you are interested let me know.  If not, perhaps you have a friend that will be....feel free to blog about this and you may copy these pictures for your post.  I would really like to find these a good home!

If you would like to be the owner of this Awesome Package of Vintage Double Wedding Ring "stuff" just leave me a bid in the comments area, or send me an e-mail:  bunkhousequilts@atcnet.net.

It will cost me about $10 to ship it anywhere in the US.  So anything over that will be fully used for Quilts of Valor batting.

I will have the bidding open through Sunday, June 10th at midnight.  And announce a winner Monday.

Stay tuned.....

QOV #57

This was made by Carolyn in northern Idaho.

I love everything about this "Take 5 on Point" quilt.

Who knew the 4 little appliqued gold stars could be such fun focal points!

I quilted the 2 border stars with curved lines to give them motion. 

All freehand designs. 

The other 2 stars are quilted to match the other setting triangles.

Backing fabric with all 50 states named. 

Thanks Carolyn!