Friday 26 February 2016

The Mutation of a Quilt

The plan to finish a yellow and gray quilt, a UFO since 2013, has been everything and nothing like a plan.

Found on Hyacinth Quilt Designs,  the "Garden Fence" quilt flipped my plan of that day. 
from Pinterest made by Cindy (Hyacinth Quilt Designs)

I immediately started to play with my yellows and grays. It didn't took long for my poor little stash to run on empty, so some orange and charcoal fabrics were invited in. Then the unfinished quilt (more like blocks) was tucked away in a drawer for a long while. Some time last September, (in 2015) I brought it out into the light with the firm intention of finishing it. 

Little did I know this quilt had a few surprises for me along the way. It almost looked like a vendetta. 

 I did blog about adding a few more blocks.

 
 

Wasn't happy with it. Should I add sashing? Borders?



Cut it up and added a wide slice of fabric with gray wordings on white.  

 Yea, that's better. 

My Garden Fence is finally finished!! Yeah!!!  Or is it?

I found it too long and narrow.  I still wasn't happy with it.

So .... the first row was removed.  


Then the quilt decided it wanted some flowers. 

-Flowers? 

-Yes, hexie flowers like the other quilt full of hexies in the basement.
-Oh! you saw that! 
-Yes, and I want to be beautiful too. 
- Darn! 


So hexagon flowers were made ...  



 
 Then the flowers wanted to be puffy. 
-Puffy flowers? 
-Yes, very puffy.
-What the baloney is this? 

... still I added some batting under the hexie flowers.



 Then one flower wanted to be peeking from behind the sashing.   -Peeking? 
-Yes like this. 



-No.
-Pretty please. 
-NO! 

Needless to say time was flying by and we were well into November and the quilt was still not finished. But I thought I could still finish it before year end. So I started to machine quilt it. Stitched in the ditch all around the white sashing was the first thing I did. Then I practiced my free motion quilting with simple leaves and eventually graduated to the quilt. 


Then some hexagon flowers started to bloom in the center squares ... 

... leaves were growing every which way in between the blocks ...



... oodles of threads to bury ...


Then, MORE flowers sprouted amongst the words ...


Daisies and Daffodils


This one looks better on the doodle pad than the FMQ but whatever. If you can't make it out, here's the original drawing.

So much easier with a pencil lol. 



 Little flowers and hearts for the corners. 







Now what to do with the row of blocks that I removed from the quilt? Will it be used on the back of the quilt? 


-No. I don't want to be hidden behind a quilt! I want to be independant and have MY own glory.
-Oh! Bother!

So all the machine quilting, free motion quilting started over again. And of course, more threads to bury. :^(




This quilt mutated into a wallhanging and a table runner. It will brighten my kitchen (as soon as I purchase a pole to hang it lol). It hasn't been washed yet either but I couldn't wait to share it with you. ;^)


For these pictures, the boys gave me a hand and held it up. It looks so good ... 





I am soooo pleased with it but, GOSH!! that was a difficult birth!! 

I call it "Secret Garden". 
I promise to take more pictures during the daytime. I'm sure it will sing much brighter notes in the sunlight.  :^)


I am done!  I have finished it before the month end. So happy. I can link with One Monthly Goal because Oh. My. God. I. am. done!!


Now, where's my bottle ? I need to celebrate lol. 




Until next time ....


;^)



Joining Sarah for "Can I get a whoop whoop?"  (Confessions of a Fabric Addict) as this is a happy dance moment for me. 

Joining Zenia for "Whoomp! There it is." for the first time. What a lovely place. Come and check it out. 





 

11 comments:

Ellen said...

Oh my Chantal...that difficult birth was certainly worth it. You have a beautiful one of a kind quilt to show for all of your hard work! You have proven that wonderful things can happen when you listen to what a quilt wants!!

PaintedThread said...

Excellent. Quilts take on a life of their own. Mine rarely finish the way they started out. Yours looks great, and the table runner, too.

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

Congratulations. I am glad the quilt was hard headed because it turned out to be beautiful.

cityquilter grace said...

perfect rendition of what would have been a ho hum quilt...

CecileD said...

J'ai adoré ton post Chantal ! Trop rigolo !!
Et que dire de ton quilt....j'adoooore ! Il est super beau et le chemin de table est une super bonne idée !
Bravo pour cette réalisation et bon week-end !

Chantal said...

I love how the quilt evolved. The hexies are so lovely in the quilt and added a little something special. Good job on the FMQ! It is just perfect in your kitchen with the matching table runner.

gayle said...

Oh, my goodness, what a journey! But so worth the trip! 8)

Fiona said...

I just love your version... so clever to see all that to make it just perfect...
Hugz

Jennifer Fulton Inquiring Quilter said...

I love seeing the evolution of this quilt. So happy though that it decided it wanted to be finished. Beautiful.

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

Such a fun post to read, and what great ideas you (or maybe it was your quilt!) had! I love those hexie flowers - they look perfect in that section.

Lisa J. said...

Two beautiful additions to your kitchen. They'll really brighten things up on the grey days.