Finishes! The Jersey Quilt and a Pillow

My first finish is the "Jerseys" quilt. I've got to come up with a better name for this baby, so please, suggestions are welcome. You can read more about this quilt here. I made it for my mom in memory of her brother who died 2 1/2 years ago.

My cousin sent me two of my Uncle's old high school football jerseys to incorporate into a quilt. I cut them up, backed them with coordinating fabrics, and then stared at them for almost a year trying to figure out how to make them into a "pretty" quilt. Finally inspiration struck and I put the top for this together on Christmas day!

At 86" square this is quite a large quilt. It fits nicely on my parents' queen sized bed. I quilted each of the 16 large block individually. 

The quilt in its natural environment.  Heart warming.

After some practice on some mini quilt sandwiches I decided to try out my beginning FMQ skills on this quilt.  I found a nice tan-brown thread for the top that blended well with all the colors.  I did some feathers, a lot of stippling, some pebbles, leaves, and just about anything else I could think of.  Mom loves the quilting.  So does Dad, but mostly from the back where the white makes it stand out. He doesn't understand why you want your quilting to blend in :)

Double feather wreathes

It was definitely a learning experience, but there wasn't too much unsewing required and over all I'm extremely happy with it.

Some of the quilting from the back.  I got bored with pebbles and didn't like the look, but I really like leaves (on the left).

I tried to get a picture of the whole back but this (below) was the best I could do before my quilt models wimped out (just kidding!).

This is my Dad's "What the heck are you doing?" face.  It was his first time as a quilt model, so he didn't realize how long it can take :) Thanks Dad!

The other finish of the week was a quick pillow I did yesterday.  It's a small lonestar made out of the remnants of a charm pack and some muslin.  The star took 9 charms, plus the 8 around the edges.

I quilted with my walking foot on either side of the many seam lines in the top.  This is the first pillow I've done with a quilted top and also the first I've used piping on. 

Up on the design wall before being quilted

When I started this I was trying to replicate the mini-lonestars I'd made before.  I remembered 1.25" as the dimension for the small diamonds, but apparently that was the finished measurement, not the one I cut to.  Oops!  Oh well, the tiny diamonds worked out well and the larger diamonds would have made too big of a lonestar anyway.

The pressing on the back of this block was almost as pretty as the front.

Making a pillow was a really fun way to work on intricate piecing and quilting without the bulk of a quilt. It's also a fun project with pretty much instant satisfaction, so I see more pillows in my future.

What about you? Any finishes this Friday?

Linking up to Finish It Friday and FMQ Friday.

Post-Christmas Recap and January Goal

 Hi there :)  Things have been quite here over the holiday, mainly because I was working on Christmas presents which I couldn't show on the blog.  One set of quilt-y presents is in transit currently to its recipients but the other I can show.  This is also my January goal to finish by the end of the month for the Lovely Year of Finishes challenge.

The basted quilt spread out on the floor at my Grandpa's house being admired.

This is another of the quilts made from my uncle's old clothes.  (See the others here and here.)  The others have been made for my cousin, but this one is for my mom.  I've had these old, high-school football jerseys of his for a year, but been mostly just staring at them trying to figure out how to make a pretty quilt centered around football jerseys.  I was also stuck with maroon and grey as two of my primary colors, but eventually inspiration struck.

 I decided to use a palette of maroon, grey, brown, cream, and blue and to make some stars to mix with the jerseys. Fortunately, this is quite a popular combination at the moment.  I bought a charm pack and some yardage of Double Chocolate as well as a little French General.  I wasn't able to get the quilt done by Christmas, but I got it basted before we traveled to visit out family two states over.

A star with some of my beginner FMQ

I took the basted quilt with us on the trip and one evening, after dinner as everyone was settled in the living room over coffee, I surprised mom with the partially finished quilt wrapped in Christmas paper.  I knew that this would be a very emotional quilt for my mom and I wanted to be able to give it to her surrounded by her family.

Quilt-parazzi taking pictures to put on Facebook

Mom loved the quilt! And so did everyone else, it was exciting for them to see those jerseys again.  I had the classic problem of being worried that the quilt would be too small for a sofa quilt and instead ending up with a queen size bed quilt.  Oh well, Dad's already looking forward to putting this on their bed :)

Beginner feathers

 I've been using a mix of straightline quilting and my beginning free motion skill to slowly quilt the monster. Mom won't mind if the quilting is less than perfect, I'm sure she's just ready for me to give it to her for real, so she can put it on her bed and enjoy it.

Honestly, after the first hellish afternoon battling tension issues, FMQ has been not so bad.  I have a long way to go before I'm happy with my technique, but I feel like I'm on the right road. 

Spread on my full size bed. Such a big quilt!

I hope everyone's Christmas and New Year were happy.  I'm looking forward to a quilt-y 2013 ;)

 (edited to add: A Lovely Year of Finishes)

Quick picture post

Once again regretting my decision to make such a large quilt. Little by little...