Saturday, February 2, 2013

Paisley's Wishes - a 100 Good Wishes Quilt

I can finally share a finish with all of you. If you remember, I got an email from a fellow adoptive mom in the late fall asking if I could make her daughter's 100 Good Wishes Quilt in time for Christmas. It was a real rush job but I was able to complete it just in time. As I prepared to send it to her, she asked me to hold onto it for a bit because at the last minute they ended up being out of town for the holidays and would give this quilt to her daughter for her birthday instead. With the weather so nasty lately it has been impossible to get pictures of this quilt but I managed to brave the cold yesterday and got a few decent shots of it.
This quilt is really wild and busy. There are a ton of unusual fabrics in it...a bunch of cool Asian ones of course, a couple to represent the college the parents attended and a lot of ones that she picked up while visiting New Zealand, where she is originally from. I actually had a rough time laying out the squares but I called my graphic artist new quilter friend and she came over and lent a hand and her expert eye. The mom didn't want any sashing between the blocks. She simply wanted them put together and two borders added so that this quilt would be similar in layout to her other daughter's quilt.
 The mom chose all the fabrics for the borders and the backing. It was certainly a bit different visually working with colors and patterns totally selected by someone else. The only choice I made was which fabrics to use for the borders from those that she sent to me. It is tough to see but the watermelon tone on tone is a paisley design which is for her daughter's name.
The mom sent a green with white dot for the backing but there wasn't enough so I added a large strip of a fun multicolored paisley from her other fabric choices.
With the light outside, it was impossible to get a good shot of the actual quilting but you can probably guess what design she requested....a paisley of course and my long arm quilter did a great job on it as usual. Since this was originally a really rushed job, I wanted to try a machine binding method and I chose the faux binding one. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out and I'm sure I'll use it again but I'm also going to research other options.
The finished quilt measures 84" x 90" and contains 110 squares.
It is finally getting boxed up this weekend and will be shipped out on Monday. I truly hope they like it. A 100 Good Wishes Quilt is so special in the fabrics it contains and it was a pure pleasure making this one a reality for this special little girl.

 

6 of you added your own colorful comments:

Linda said...

Wow Michele! This 100 wishes is amazing. It will certainly be well loved by the owner. Great job!

Kathy @ Kwilty Pleasures said...

Lucky little girl! Nice quilt!

Vroomans' Quilts said...

I think these quilts are so precious and how wonderful of you to make it a reality. I am sure it is going to be well loved.

Diane-crewe said...

it looks great... I do love a scrap quilt xx

Karen said...

The quilt is beautiful. What a wonderful 100 wish quilt.

Rachell said...

Very pretty! You did a great job. There are some very unique fabrics to work with, and it came together well.