Tuesday, October 16, 2007

A new quilt (finally)

I've been working on a quilt since May for my grandma. It was her birthday on Saturday, and I finished it an hour before her party! Talk about cutting it close! It's kind of a family tree/memory quilt, so I put pictures of each person on it. Of course, on Friday the black ink in my printer ran out; yes, I panicked. I had cut just enough fabric for the pictures I had left, and managed to wreck one sheet. I was filled with visions of being up until the wee hours of the morning - first, washing and drying new fabric, putting the printer solution on it and letting it hang dry, then printing, then waiting the appropriate amount of time before hand washing it and laying it out to dry. Wouldn't you know it, after I had used the last sheet of printable fabric, I glanced toward my paper stacked chair-by-the-computer and spotted a sheet that had been left over from the last batch of pictures I had done. A big rush of relief! Many "Thank you, God" prayers later and I was done (with the printing, anyway)! So, here it is.


The bee hives came first. An integral part of the quilt! Grandma's CB handle was Queen Bee (Grandpa was Bee Keeper). They were beekeepers for many years, and I remember going into the honey house at harvest time - that was the best smell in the world.


Next came the stems and leaves. Gotta say, silk ribbon isn't exactly easy to find here. I bought some from a limited stock at Michael's, and when I ran out I found that they had discontinued ordering it. I was forced to use all the little scraps I had left!


Then the roses. Yes, three-dimensional. A lot of fun to do!


Of course, the centerpiece needed their wedding picture. They look like young crazy kids!



The final product with everyone's pictures. I did b&w so none of the colours would be too clashy with the final product. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. There are still a few things that need to be done - a hanging sleeve (which my auntie will help out with since I'm clueless in that area) and tacking the pictures on more securely. The photos are replaceable since people keep having babies. Or get married. Or grow up. Or get hair that turns greyer, or shorter, or nonexistent (sorry brothers, just had to throw that in!).

*the pattern I used was Beekeeper's Garden by The City Stitcher.

2 comments:

Heather said...

This is so beautiful! What an amazing gift.

{ as we know it } said...

the quilt is as beautiful as everyone kept saying it was! thanks for posting the pics ... i was sorry i couldn't see it when i was up there.
and it was so good to see you your family! i'm just sad it won't be till christmas that we see you again ...