Monday, July 13, 2015

Special Request

March 30,2015 my dad asked me to make him a quilt for his 80th birthday which was April 9. My dad is a two time survivor of kidney and bladder cancer. He has COPD and a heart ailment. His request HAD to be honored. So, I walked into the studio to figure out some fabric and my eye lit on those sawtooth stars.

My dad's favorite color is blue so those were definitely in. I was doing the happy dance because I had a bunch already sewn from retreat. Because I was making it, I decided it had to have my favorite color which is red. 


Red, white and blue. . .Hey, I won some BOM blocks at guild the previous year that were red, white and blue. This is a good combination! Then, I had this thought. . .why not have 80 stars for 80 years? Course, that means that I needed to make twice as many more!

This was a time sensitive quilt and quick, I am definitely NOT! I did work steadily on the piecing for about a month. 


These were the blocks that I had won.
I made about 13 more. They were 12 inch blocks so the sawtooth stars made the perfect addition to the design.




















 Adding a whole row of stars to the top of the quilt was a great to add a dozen stars. But, I was four short. . .How was I going to get to 80? 












Take the six inch center out of those nine patch blocks and insert a sawtooth star was the solution!!!








Dad asked to have a few more stars in the quilt. So I pieced a few into the back.  During the whole process, I would chat with him and tell him how I was progressing. He really had no idea how long it takes to make a quilt!!







 This is the label.














 I quilted it on a friend's longarm. I am so thankful that she let me use her machine as I would still be quilting it on my domestic!! As it was, it took me a couple days. . .with her help!! The end of May, I gave it to him in a coordinating pillow case. He loved it! 




And it FIT!!! -- There's plenty of room for his white dog to snuggle too!

2 comments:

Sewnuts said...

Hi Terry, Nice to "see you" again as I do so miss the TQS blogs and although the I've made contact with some folks on FB, it's not the same as a blog. I had started one, that I've been very "bad" at keeping updated ( not for several years now!) - maybe seeing this will inspire me to get back at it! Your
dad's quilt is gorgeous - not surprising he loves it!

Look forward to reading more on your blog - happy quilting!

Pat

TerryKnott.blogspot.com said...

I've checked in on your FB page; but, you're right. It isn't the same! Update your blog and post it on the forum so I can follow you too! Great to hear from you. Thank you for your comment about my dad and his quilt. He's had it a couple months now and still gives me a daily update on who's seen it, how much dog hair is on it, etc!! Take Care!!! Terry