My First Client Ordered Quilt!

At the risk of ruining the surprise, I have held off posting this until today. But I just can't keep quiet any longer....

Back in December, I took the plunge, left my job (with my wonderful husband's encouragement), built a website (still building actually), printed off business cards, and mentioned I was going to start making custom quilts to order, and provide restoration services for well loved quilts.  Almost immediately, interest started coming in. One of the first was a woman I am friends with on Facebook, that I went to High School with. She has always wanted a hand made quilt, and thought to give me a chance. Not having any pattern in mind, or size needs, she gave me her colors and set me loose.

Well, that was SCARY. What if I picked the wrong colors, or made a pattern she hated. Would it be too small, was there something she wanted but just wasn't saying? Oh the decisions. So I did what I do best. I went shopping for fabric. Since one of her colors was Brown, and I am NOT a brown person, this was a new, outside the comfort zone shopping trip. But you wouldn't know it....oh the choices. Like a candy shopper, once I started, I couldn't decide. This one or that one, or both. And ooooh, look at that one.

So I dragged my kill choices home and let the fabrics tell me what pattern they wanted to be in. That is probably my one unique quirk. I find the fabric and THAN pick the pattern. Not the other way around.

After some scouring and pondering, I decided on a little lap quilt that I felt would show off the fabrics very well. While I had intended for the red to be just a complimentary color, it ended up taking more attention. So, I showcased just the greens and browns on the back with a little bonus strip between the two backing panels.

I quilted it in a dark thread in this beautiful continuous line flower/leaf pattern, and then bound it with the backing fabric turned over....who says it's the "wrong" side?

This quilt was in many ways challenging to me. The piecing was straightforward, but the color choices, the quilting in a dark thread, and machine binding (for added endurance) are all things that I would have avoided before.

 Overall, it it approx. 60" square. Not a bed quilt, but a nice lazy Sunday nap quilt. Or something to add a little color at the end of a bed or chair back???

So thank you Mrs. RGF for your confidence and willingness to be my first professional victim!

What to call it?

Well, I finished the quilt top. And it's so large I had to lay it out in my living room.






It's like the Hulk and the Purple Phantom got in a fight.....Grapes of Wrath.....Aurora Borealis on steroids.

But anyone who knows me knows this quilt is right up my ally. I love love love Purple, and something about purple and green together is magical. And man are some of these fabrics crazy.  I have a person in mind for this quilt, but it might be a little larger than she was thinking of. It's roughly 78"x90" or a generous full/comfy queen size.






Not sure what color to back it with, but powerful colors demand something a little less loud, but not your boring old beige either.
I plan to machine quilt this with a black thread, to highlight the secondary pattern in the quilt top. And make it washable, because this thing just screams weekend nap quilt!

Heave ho, here we go!