needle and thREAD ~ brought to you by the number 125

Last summer, she asked Tyler if she could hire me to make her a quilt.

"No," I told him; 

"I could never charge somebody what my time is worth, I'd rather gift it.

If she buys the fabric, I'll make one for her."

In January, I told Tyler to tell her

I was ready to make her quilt.

She wanted:

Lightweight.

Red

purple

blue

orange

and aqua.

No pink.

No flowers. 

(um. I didn't exactly abide by this one...)

A smidge of green and yellow.

Totally random.

A bohemian hippie vibe, with a nod to re-purposing.

Oh. 

And the quilting should be unexpected.

After a few e-mails back and forth, and visiting over coconut coffee, 

I had a pretty good picture in my mind of what she wanted.

I ordered a rainbow bundle of fat sixteenths (light on the greens and yellows).

I added a little bundle of purple,

and another of oranges.

I dug through every piece of fabric that I own,

looking for pieces that met the above requirements.

Then I shopped at thrift shops, Hancocks, Hobby Lobby, and The Bargain Shack to round out my (admittedly tall) stack

and ended up with 123 different fabrics.

after shrinkage, quilt is 69x81 (did you see the pop of orange in the binding? :-)

I spent 5 hours over the course of 3 days cutting 4 1/2 inch squares.

(It takes a lot longer to cut a few squares from a bunch of fabrics

than it takes to cut a bunch of squares from a few fabrics!)

A week of sewing (and ironing) here and there

resulted in a finished quilt top.

In early January, a friend had offered to let me dig through some bins of fabric;

she knew I was a quilter (I'm a quilter!!:-) and thought I might find something I could put to good use.

I kept hoping that when I dug through the bins, I'd find fabric that would be perfect for the back of Nancy's quilt.

And I did!

Of course, I had to add some piecing to the back, too.

I used up every cm of those fat sixteenths ~ I had to; that was some expensive fabric!

After a quick trip to the church to baste it,

I spent the next 3 days quilting with my new Juki exceed f600.

Then it was time to decide on a binding.

And then, of course, make, and attach the binding,

then hand-sew it to the back.

(I forgot to take pictures, but my corners were perfect. I was so tickled!)

123 fabrics, plus the blue back

and the black binding - so, 125 fabrics

and about 31 hours of cutting, sewing, and ironing (ironing is a big part of quilting!)

and Nancy got the quilt she's always wanted her whole life.

Thanks, Nancy, for letting me make your quilt.

It was a fun challenge :-)

I hope you and Bruce enjoy many picnics on it

and snuggles on the couch under it.

Most of the photos in this post are by Brandon ~ thanks, Bud!

Linking up with my quilting mentor's Finish it up Fridays

and my friend's with needle and thREAD, although very little reading transpired.