Finished Blue Bayou!

Finally, finally, I finished the Blue Bayou quilt for my son.

This was intended to be a graduation quilt for his high school grad.  Well, that happened 2 and a bit years ago, so it’s a little late!  However, he should not feel bad, because his sister’s high school graduation quilt was about 4 years late.  Think I should get started on wedding quilts now?

You’re may be thinking that my son has a very tidy bedroom.  Ha!  I thought about photographing it in his room, but decided you really didn’t need to be punished by having to look at the chaos in there.  Actuallly, I put the quilt on the guest bed to photograph it.

It feels so good to get a big quilt like this done!  When I decided to make this, I spent a lot of time collecting various fat quarters, as I wanted it to be really scrappy.  Many times, I came home with some fat quarters, only to find that they really didn’t go with the other blues I had chosen.   I had decided to lean towards teal, and there are even some bits that are green, but they don’t show up so well in the photo.  I spent about a year collecting the fabric – that’s really my favourite part of quilting, so why rush it?  Then, cutting hundreds of squares! 

The pattern instructions were, in my opinion, annoying, as they told you to cut the squares into half square triangles, then sew them together in various combinations of dark, medium, light and white.  I would use the “draw the line diagonally across the square, then sew on each side” method, so I had to calculate myself how many of each combination I needed.  I do a fair amount of technical writing at work, so when instructions are vague or confusing – or not as efficient as they could be, it bugs me.   It’s not easy writing good instructions!

Here is an end-on photo that shows the pattern and quilting a little better.

I just did an all over pattern, as the quilt is so busy, the quilting would not show anyway.  And, it’s easier!

The pattern is from Fons and Porter magazine – the January-February 2008 issue.  I made the mistake of throwing away the magazine without writing down the name of the designer.  I e mailed F & P to ask them, but they have not got back to me yet.  If any of you save old magazines, perhaps you’ll be able to tell me.

Today is a glorious day – sunny and above freezing.  We had about 6 inches of snow a week or so ago.  That’s a bit early for us, although we usually have snow right around Halloween.  Then, it was cloudy and foggy for an entire week, which is REALLY unusual for Calgary.  We’re so dry, we rarely get fog, and we usually have lots of sun in the winter.    But, the fog has lifted, the sun is shining, and I have an extra hour today!  What could be better!