Our church friends Mr. Charles and Miss Charlotte celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this week.
Miss Charlotte "hinted" that she would like a rag quilt after I gave her great grand daughter one as a birthday gift.
Cheryl (her daughter) and Angel (her granddaughter) asked me to help them. So Cheryl and Angel bought all the fabric and batting & cut all the squares. They brought them to me to do the sewing. All the squares were numbered with row number and square number (this will be important later!).
So I got to sewing...and sewed....and sewed....and the sewed some more.
The biggest rag quilt I had ever done was 72 squares (8 across & 9 down)...this one was 288 squares ~ 16 across and 18 down. It will fit a king size bed. Cheryl & Angel layed out the front and back of each square~ the back pattern would make a large M, for their last name, and have a decorative border. (Keep that in mind too...its important) The front was a somewhat random pattern.
Last Saturday, I had 1/2 the quilt finished. So my friends helped me clip during Amy's party. After lunch, I got busy and FINISHED sewing the squares for all the rows together. Because of the heaviness of the overall quilt, I had Amy come help me hold it up and guide through the machine. It was impossible to do it alone, as it kept slipping to the side because of how heavy it was.
I got the 2 huge sections stitched together and hemmed down one side. Then something caught my eye....row 12 ~ laying on the floor. Argh~ Amy and I really tried to come up with a way to ignore row 12 but since there was a pattern on the back, I couldn't leave it off...the M would have still worked but not the border. So I had to take apart rows 11 & 13 and insert row 12. Then seam all 4 sides.
Yesterday, after cutting up all the fruit for the party. We spread the quilt out and finished clipping.
It was an act of love for a special couple.
Here are 2 pictures ~
As we are taking the pictures, I hear a lady saying, "Who made that quilt, I sure would like one." And I am thinking "WHAT?"
Anyway, Happy Anniversary to a sweet couple"
I wondered why you looked 'stunned'. It turned out beautiful, I know they will enjoy it for years to come! Brenda
ReplyDeleteI want one also but I don't want an M on mine. Maybe I would like a C. Mom
ReplyDeleteGo look on your living room wall mommy dearest! And I worked on your pinwheel quilt today!
ReplyDeleteThat is beautifu! Hubby and I just has our 23rd on the 24th... YOu do a wonderful job! wish I could do such work!
ReplyDeleteThat is really beautiful and looks like it will be very cozy in the winter!
ReplyDeleteTracie