Saturday 4 July 2015

A masterpiece?

I am not a brilliant maker of quilts; there are certain aspects of my hobby I really need to improve upon (and I will) but this finished quilt is one of my all-time favourites and I was immensely proud of my work when I handed it over to my boss this week.
 
When I was at the thinking stage, knowing Mike played the piano at home, I googled 'piano quilt' and found this image of a set of coasters: 
 


There was no pattern but I worked one up pretty easily with 5" squares, HSTs and the piano keys. I raided my stash and made a few purchases:
 


The image was a real help guiding me on the correct fabric placement. The piano keys took some time as I appliquéd the black onto the white first and then built the rest of the quilt in stages around them:
 

 

With lots of 5" squares came lots of pinning and chain piecing so I had to keep my book close by ... to avoid confusion, I gave each fabric a letter (A-Q ... so that's 17 different fabrics used):

 

 

The quilting was tricky, using different threads to FMQ the light and dark sections and I hand to hand quilt around the black keys; I think that part alone took me 8 hours but then I have never hand quilted before (and may never again!!) 



I FMQ'd a little musical note in each corner:
 
 
It finished at 60" x 70" (one of my biggest) and I estimate I spent around 100 hours selecting, ironing, cutting, sewing, appliqué-ing, pressing, pinning, piecing, basting, quilting, binding, labelling ... and it was worth every minute:
 
 
My boss was speechless (a first!) and after 37 years of service, it was lovely to present him with such a unique quilt - a memorable gift for a memorable boss, who's been hugely supportive of me and my work over the past 4 years - I will miss him. Happy retirement, Mike x


Linking up with Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts and Sarah @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

19 comments:

  1. Great work, Jen!
    It's lovely!!!
    Eaven better that you gave it away!!!
    That's real friendship!!!!
    Lots of hugs!
    Maja

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  2. That's a real beauty!

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  3. I love what you did. There is no other word to use, except brilliant! Wow! You can personalize a quilt like nobody else!

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  4. Beautiful! And absolutely all your own work! Congratulations!

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  5. It's fantastic how you put it all together from the photo. What a marvellous retirement gift.

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  6. Superb!! It turned out so perfect!

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  7. It is absolutely a Masterpiece. Beautiful beautiful work.

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  8. Wonderful! And pretty remarkable for 100 hours!

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  9. Wowser Jen. You are right to be proud of that - it looks wonderful! I'm sure it will be well loved 😊

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  10. Love the quilted musical notes in the corners! Looking forward to the pink version ;-)

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  11. Absolutely wonderful. Congratulations on a truly beautiful quilt!

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  12. Looks like a masterpiece to me. I have only spent that much time on a quilt that is hand quilted. It turned out so amazing. What a treasure.

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  13. Oh wow wow wow Jen. All that hard work has paid off, it's wonderful!! I bet he was completely speechless! Such a generous, thoughtful gift, which I am sure will be treasured forever.

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  14. This is amazing. BRAVO!! The hours show in this beauty. I loved following your progress and am so happy to see this beautiful finish!!

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  15. Super clever of you! What an awesome quilt - you did a super job!

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  16. It absolutely IS a masterpiece! Stunning, my friend. You did a great job.

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  17. What an absolutely stunning masterpiece of a quilt!! Amazing!!

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I love reading all your comments, I know it takes time to write them but they make me smile so thank you for dropping by :)