Progress: Backing picked & quilt sandwiched!

Yes, I'm alive. LOL! I got an old sheet that is complementary to the colors in the quilt.



Here's what it looked like sandwiched. I'm a bit disappointed it isn't bigger. It's huge to me, but compared to an official twin-sized batting, it looked smaller.

Progress: Quilt top finished!!!!

I am so excited to post that I finished the quilt top today! Now I have to find a sheet to use as the backing & decide on binding.



You don't need it anymore, right Mommy?



Does it look good on me?


I think it works!



Where's Jared?



It's also good for going night-night.

Progress: Quilt top almost together!

Well, I have 3 pieces of quilt top. LOL! I have the top 3 rows sewn together & also the bottom 3. I had planned to just start at the top & keep attaching, but by the time I got to row 4, the fabric was heavy & was pulling. I'm just going to have to do more pinning to get the rest together.

Progress: 1 Row Sewn!

It's not much, but I'm making progress. My goal today is to get all rows sewn. Can I do it? We'll see!!!

Progress: Squares finished! Figured out layout!

I finished all the squares - 35 total! Here's the layout:



Justin had to help me. He's usually pretty good with the color & design stuff, so I like to run things by him & get his opinion. Another eye is always good! I didn't want too many of the same fabrics together. It was like a giant jigsaw puzzle! :)

Here are the squares, labeled & ready for sewing!

Progress: I finished all the big squares!

Jared is now carrying a few of them around the house, but they're done. I hope some don't go missing. LOL! There are 17 big squares. Now I have to figure out what fabrics I want for double borders on the little squares.

Progress: I have 2 complete squares! 33 more to go!

Progress: Selected fabrics for the borders around the big squares!

I had to cut up 3 more dresses, because I didn't like smoe of the ones I had already cut. They just didn't work. So here they are. I'll start cutting the strips tomorrow.

Progress: All squares cut!

Look at this tropical awesomeness!



Now I have to figure out what to make the borders on each square out of. I have both small prints (plaids, flowers, etc) or I have more of the big prints left.

Progress: Some squares cut!

Here are some of the squares. They are way crazy! Very fun & tropical!

Finished cutting the dresses!

Here's my pile of fabric!



Now to start cutting my pieces:

I'm changing my mind on the pattern!

My hubby gave me his opinion that he thought some of the large prints would be difficult to use in my current pattern. I, being as independent as I usually am, said it was fine & went on cutting. As I've been cutting though, I've realized he's right (why does have have to be right all the time?). Some of these prints are huge & would look funny in the pattern. See?



So....I'm leaning towards going back to the other pattern I had chosen before the rail fence. It has larger blocks, so I could showcase some of the big floral prints and make the outline from the smaller ones. I showed this pattern to my mom before & she liked it.





I may make the other pattern out of my grandma's clothes for me. The smaller prints are more my style anyway.

Mamaw's Quilt: Progress

I started cutting with this dress.



I thought I might need to have a glass of wine to start cutting into my grandma's clothes, but I managed to just take the plunge. Here's the first cut! Eek!!!



I ironed it flat & now it just looks like a piece of fabric.

Quilt From My Grandma's Clothes

So here's the big project! My grandmother (mom's mom) passed away in January of 2005. I saved these clothes so I could create some quilts from them. At that time, I was a big-time beginner (more than I am now - ha ha). I wasn't prepared to make the quilt at that time. It's been in the back of my mind for 4.5 years. Well, now I'm ready or at least I've decided to bite the bullet. I was afraid of making mistakes, ruining my grandma's clothes & then they'd be gone forever. Well, it's time to challenge myself.

The first quilt I'm going to tackle is one for my mom. Here are all the clothes I started with. As you can see (or maybe you can't), my grandma's favorite color was purple & towards the end of her life she was a muu-muu kind of lady - all comfort, all the time. :)



Closer up:



I've been searching for a pattern that spoke to me for years. I finally came across a quilt-along on a quilting blog called Old Red Barn Co. I think it's called a Rail Fence pattern officially, but here are some examples of the pattern:









Here are the dresses I've chosen to start with (I want the hubby to come home & see what he thinks too. I may still change my mind). BTW, I know they look like a crazy combo, but keep in mind that 1) my grandma was a crazy kind of gal, 2) my mom wants her quilt to be mostly purple & 3) this is a scrap quilt & is supposed to be SCRAPPY: