A Really BIG Friday Finish!

May is such a great month this year -- FIVE Fridays!

OK, I don't have five finishes to show you, but I do have a funny story. It's about my most recent "Scrap Squad" quilt for Quiltmaker Magazine's Quilty Pleasures Blog. I wrote a tutorial using the "Tri Recs" tool for the Quilty Pleasures blog. But you, dear 52 Quilts readers, get the "behind the scenes" story.

When we received the pattern for Robin Waggoner's "Mandarin Express" quilt, I immediately thought of the huge pile of purple-and-tan four patches left over from Judy Laquidara's purple monochrome quilt challenge several years ago (at least three, because it was pre-52 Quilts blog!).  "Great, I'm halfway finished," I thought to myself!

I went to work cutting the triangle-within-a-square blocks and sewing, sewing, sewing.  Because there are two blocks to this quilt, and I want the four corners to be the same, it must have 63 blocks.  Up on the design wall, and man, this quilt is getting to be big.  And I'm only halfway finished.

That's only 40 blocks, and my design wall is filled! On I plug, sewing and sewing. At Barb Gardner's EQ7 class, I design a border to continue the chain blocks into the border. Finally, it's all pieced and ready to go to the long-arm quilter, Ann.

We measure the top, and it's 96" by 112" (!)  I know magazines rarely write patterns for quilts this large, what is the deal?  That's when I go back to the pattern and realize:

The pattern calls for 2" squares for the four-patches. Mine are based on 2.5" squares.  I've made a really, really big quilt!

So big, in fact, that when I hang it over the edge of the second-story deck, it almost touches the top of the light post on the patio below!

This will be a wedding quilt for the son of my late friend, Susan. He is a US Marine, currently attending flight school in Pensacola, Florida. When I took him and his fiance to lunch, I told them they could choose what they wanted for a wedding quilt: modern or traditional, and what color? Priscilla wouldn't say, so Spencer answered for her, "Traditional, and purple!"  I think my Mandarin Grape fits the bill, don't you?

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict "Whoop Whoop Friday."

As well as Richard and Tanya Quilts Link a Finish Friday.

Have you entered my 500 Followers giveaway yet?  Go to this post to enter!

From the desk of your

You're a winner, and I'm a winner!

So I was sitting at the computer waiting for it to be noon, so I could ask Random.org to select a winner for the 100+ followers giveaway.  I idly scrolled through my "spam" folder -- and found a message from Sandi at Piecemeal Quilts with the subject "EQ7 Giveaway Winner."

Eeeek!

Sandi asked us to tell a story about a special quilt, and I talked about a quilt made by my great-grandmother in the 1890s:

The quilt I’d like to tell you about was made by my great-grandmother, Mary Gehman Horning. In 1896. That’s right — 1896. Mary lived up in the mountains of Colorado, where my great-grandfather was a coal miner. He was a bit of a “roundheel,” which is code for “he ran around.” She was left to raise her four children on her own for months at a time.
She pieced two quilts from indigo fabrics and muslin, completely by hand and heavily quilted. When my Aunt Frances was moving out of her house, she offered me one of the two quilts, saying her daughters weren’t interested in having them (!) I chose the Double Irish Chain — she wanted to wash it before she gave it to me, as it had a smallish stain on one corner. I shrieked, “No, no, not necessary!” and convinced her not to put it through the washing machine. When I brought the quilt back to Colorado, I had it appraised by a Certified Quilt Appraiser, Bobbie Aug. After talking about the fabric, the design, the stitching and the hand-quilting, she asked me if I had an idea what it might be worth. I answered, “Oh, I think with all the quilting, it should be worth about $400-$500.”
She replied, “I am putting an appraised value on this quilt of $3600. You have a treasure I will never have, a quilt from your own family.”
It was just like on “Antiques Roadshow.” All I could say was “you’re kidding,” and “wow!”
My Aunt Frances wrote up a nice little history of Mrs. Horning and gave me a picture of my Great Grand-Mother sewing. Doubly treasured now that Aunt Frances is gone, also.
And yes, I have the quilt stored in acid-free paper in a special acid-free box!

Again, eeeek!  I won the EQ7 program!  One of the commenters noticed this was my second big win this month, and suggested I buy a lottery ticket . . . . . hmmm, maybe I should?

And now, your're a winner.  According to Random.org, the winner is:

Who is Ali, of alimakes.

and she said:

Ali wins:

Ali describes herself as "a long-suffering resident of the soggy, squish Pacific Northwest."  And she makes wine!  I may have to look her up when I go to the Tacoma Quilt Festival in August!

Congratulations, Ali!  I'm sending you an email asking for your address so I can send the three charm packs to you!


From the desk of your