New Custom Quilt - Shabby Chic Kitty

Recently I was contacted by a client to work on a quilt for her best friend; Christmas is on the 25th, her friend's birthday is on the 27th, and then she's going into surgery on the 29th.  Since it's already December, a custom quilt is a tall order for holiday delivery, but by now you know that I have a tendency to go BIG and not say "no" even when the odds are against.

With that in mind, and knowing that I also have 25 videos to post between now and Christmas, I had to do some creative thinking to fit this project in.

An idea occurred to me: if I could somehow incorporate the quilt into my video process, I'd be able to squeeze it in, and coming up with a pattern that could be easily executed on my AccuQuilt cutter was also a bonus. Luckily, my client understood that in such a short time frame, she'd have to accept what I came up with, and readily agreed to the plan if I could get her quilt done.

The pattern is very simple, and is based on a layer cake I cut on my Studio in 4 passes.  The video will be posted later this month, probably the day I deliver the quilt so you can see the video with the quilting complete.

In the mean time, here are some progress pictures as the quilt comes together.  The color scheme is so far from what I usually work with, and the block placement was as random as someone like me could possibly manage. The fabric required consultation with the ladies over at Quilt Play since nothing like this exists in my stash, and I am always grateful to them for their advice and help.

The theme of the quilt is shabby chic, and is to have some photographs of a kitten incorporated into it somewhere as yet to be determined. (I know what you are thinking!  But sometimes a masterpiece is really about how much people will love something, and not what we would prefer or feel comfortable doing ourselves.)

Here are the fabrics, though I am quite vexed that the colors are not faithful in the photos.  The colors are softer & more muted than they are represented here:



And here is the interior of the quilt top. This is my first quilt where I've pressed the seams open on the entire quilt.  I'd especially like to see how Mr. Darcy appreciates this effort when it comes to him next week.



Once I got this assembled and photographed, I decided that it needed another row added, and then I applied the borders.  Again, the colors are not true; the narrow inner border that you see is not red, but rather a dusty pink.  I took all these photos with my iPhone, so I'm pretty sure that has a lot to do with it.  Once the quilt is completed I'll set up the photo lights and take a really good picture.  I really like the way this turned out, and the piecing came together very quickly.  It's a top that can be assembled in an afternoon, even for a slow quilter like me.



Happy quilting!