My dear friend Julie hit a milestone birthday this year and so I wanted to give her something special. I’ve been quilting for about 4 years and since I started she’s dropped a hint of two that she’d like one. She even asked if she gave me the fabric, would I make her one and I said yes but nothing ever happened. So as her birthday approached, I knew what I had to do. I contacted her son, Patrick, and asked him what colours were in her bedroom. He said poppy.
I was off to Joanns and saw this fabric. It may not be exactly the colours I was after but it grabbed my attention and I usually take that as a sign. So I bought 6 yards and brought it home. Six yards???? Well I wasn’t making a typical quilt where you match up different fabrics. I decided this fabric would be fabulous for a one block wonder. A one block wonder takes the repeats of the fabric and then you cut it into triangles and create hexagons of identical pieces.
I had intended to get it to Julie before she went of her birthday holiday to Australia but alas, life got in the way. I did actually finish it before her birthday but with the mail system and crossing the border to Canada, it wouldn’t have made it before she left. So I mailed it so it would be there when she got home.
I don’t get to quilt as often as I used to but I love it. It’s a great use of brain power!
So here’s how I did it!
I bought fabric:
I cut fabric, this is but a fraction of the number of triangles I had to sew together (approx 1300 triangles):
I sewed lots and lots of hexagons: They are all sitting on the design sheet and the rows are pinned but not sewn together.
I sewed the rows of hexagons together and added a border:
I chose a backing: It’s an awesome Chinese characters fabric.
I quilted front and back and added a binding: The binding is the original fabric to bring it all together.
I added a birthday note:
I folded the quilt and took another pic, because I love this look!
I mailed it!
From start to finish it took about a month part time.
So Happy Birthday Julie. I hope you have an awesome year and may the next part of you life be better than the last!
Thanks for looking!
Linking with:
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Handmade Tuesday
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It's gorgeous! You are a good friend!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely gorgeous!!!
ReplyDeleteThat's beautiful! Great work.
ReplyDeleteWOW! What an amazing gift Karen! Incredible!
ReplyDeleteOh, Karen! This is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteYour friend Julie is going to screech with delight when she opens her package. This is just beautiful Karen. I don't quilt as often as I used to either...seems cookie decorating takes up the time I used to reserve for quilting LOL.
ReplyDeleteI've never made a one block wonder quilt and con only imagine how time consuming the cutting and piecing of all the triangles and hexagons are. Fantastic job girl!
You are so talented! What a gorgeous quilt, and I love how you have personalised it. That is a real labour of love and I know your friend Julie will be thrilled with it.
ReplyDeleteYour quilt is beautiful! I love to quilt, but I haven't had much time for it since I had my youngest child.
ReplyDelete