My youngest son is getting married in a few short months. He requested a quilt that he and his fiance could cuddle under while they watched TV. He wanted big and bright!
Last March, I found a pattern to use for the quilt. Jean from
Jean's Quilting Page had written the pattern, first as a
Mystery quilt, then, the pattern was published in McCall's Quick Quilting magazine.
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| Jean's pattern that I'm using |
The McCall's version finishes at 59.5" x 59.5", which, according to my son, was way too small for them to both cuddle under, as he is 6' tall, and likes his quilts to go from his toes up to his ears.
Since I was going to have to make the quilt longer and wider, I decided that I'd use 8 different colors in the quilt. Actually, it has 2 shades of each of those 8 colors, along with black and white. That's 18 colors. A shopping I went.
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| fabrics for the wedding quilt |
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| more fabrics for the wedding quilt |
I sat down and redrew the pattern to fit the colors I chose, and the size I was looking for. I renamed this pattern. As a mystery quilt, it was named Snake Dance. McCall's changed the name to Twist and Shout. Since this is a wedding quilt, to signify the joining together of two lives, I've renamed it
Intertwined.
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| my redrafted pattern |
I was going to twist the 2 shades of each color around the black. Oops! What I thought was contrasting colors WEREN'T!
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| the oranges look fine |
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| the 2 shades of aqua look almost the same shade |
Back to the drawing board!
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| newly redrafted pattern |
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| testing the colors, to make sure they look good next to each other |
Cool! This version passed the test. I had already made 512 half square triangles, and cut out all the strips, ready to sew together, for the middles.
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| 512 half square triangles |
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| strips, stitched together, and, half sub-cut |
OOPS!!!!!!! See if you can spot the next problem I encountered.
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| ready to start making the first blocks |
See the middle strips? They are cut correctly. Unfortunately, the half square triangles are the WRONG SIZE! Oops! When I'd figured out what size of
Trianglulations to print out, I picked the wrong size. I needed 3.5" triangles (unfinished), but, instead, I chose 3.5" triangles FINISHED size. Oops! My HST's are all 4" unfinished, not 3.5" unfinished. (can I scream now?!?!?!?)
Back to the cutting mat. Thank goodness I just bought several more yards of Kona Black, and, that I also bought more material of all 16 colors, than I have needed (so far). I have about 1/3 yard of each color left. As soon as I post this, I'll head back upstairs to start cutting more strips, and sewing them together. I was really hoping to have a complete row of twists done tonight, and maybe more.
I also have to re-figure how large this quilt is going to be, since all my blocks will be larger.
PS: This pattern is really good, and easy to follow. The problems have all been ME, not the pattern. I would highly recommend this pattern to everyone to make. Just don't make the same mistakes I've made.
