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Saturday, May 28, 2011

Folksy "Come Dance" Quilt Finally Finished

For those of you following my quilt story you remember that my son asked me to make him this huge 90" square (give or take an ") quilt for dancing on at folk festivals he and his family attend in the summer time. Today I put the finishing touches on it. Poor Henry is going to miss this big blanket when it finally goes into the mail. But here he enjoys it with its border and binding sewn on...The binding is all in velvet from my stash. I just realized that my son requested this quilt on May 15th, I came home and started it on 18th, and I finished it on May 28th 11 days later! Wow, I made it in less than two weeks! Now that IS impressive if I do say so myself.
(Most photos will enlarge when clicked on) I even embroidered one section for the dance theme... and I used my free motion sewing to write across the top border: "Come Dance * Dan *
* Dan * Jackie *
* And then a baby face for yet unnamed baby expected in August this summer *
* Mikiah *
my just turned 21 yr old grand son, my son's eldest child * Kaeli *
My son's teen aged daughter, my second grand child
I added free motion swirls across the other three sides, which can best be seen
on the reverse side...they added quilting to the border but are green thread on
green fabric on top; and green thread on orange nylon backing.
The dots on the orange middle are the back side of the tied knots on top
quilting the middle section in this tied style.
Henry and I put it on the back lawn to practice dancing on it and it did not slip or slide
as I'd feared.
Here you can see the spiral design on the velvet border.
I machine sewed the binding on front and back to make it sturdy. Since it will be used a lot
I did not want to chance a neatly hand sewn binding on the back.
For something I had much trepidation about starting
due to it's size and weight (the upholstery samples are some very heavy, some light)
and moving it under my sewing machine turned out to be do able given
that I set up frames and chairs to old the bulk while running it under the machine.
Each seam is sewn at least three times for durability.
And the nylon seemed to do it's job as requested "water proof" by son;
as the grass was wet and it kept it from soaking through to the top as I sat on it.
I have washed it three times, twice just the top and finally the whole sandwiched quilt
and it dried for a while in the dryer on low heat/delicate until the nylon was dry;
then I air dried it over chairs until the rest was dry.
And it did not shrink!
I will not take on another so big a project anytime soon,
but I am very happy that I was able to fill my son's request by
accomplishing this one.
Now,
Let the Dancing begin!
I promise, this is the last you will see of this quilt, unless of course my son
sends photos of them dancing on it!
;-))

10 comments:

  1. Bravo Lynn, It's wonderful. You now need to make Henry his very own quilt.. He likes it he really likes it. :)) So will you Son and DIL and whom ever they pass it onto.

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  2. Lynn--A priceless heirloom!! I am so impressed by your talent!

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  3. Its wonderful Lynn. I don't quite understand why they want to dance on a quilt?? Is this for outside dancing or inside. And why do they need a quilt to dance on???

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  4. What a lovely piece and certainly will start lots of conversations! I have a friend who dances at RenFests and can see him dancing on something like this, though I never thought of doing that before!

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  5. Lynn - it's WONDERFUL! You must have the patience of a saint ;-)

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  6. Cris you are probably right and I have plenty of fabric samples left as I went back to buy more as they were so cheap at $5 a bag full.
    But DH does not want a rug made from them as it's too much of a dust collector and not good for our allergies.

    Diane you are way too kind, and thank you!

    Suki, yes, it is for outdoor dancing and I dare say the ground where they do the dancing is often damp or wet so the banket gives them a clean dry surface on which to dance. They live in Oregon and they do not have the hot summers we have here in California. My son had taken me to his friends house to show me his festivial quilt and told me he wanted/needed one too. So here it is!

    Teri and cats, thanks, I thought the little extras like names etc would get attention from others and help them identify it as their family quilt too. ;-))

    Viv, it did take a lot of patience to stick with this project. I was determined to meet my son's request for this! Glad I was able to accomplish it.

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  7. What an amazing feat (or feet?) anyhow, you must have been living and breathing this quilt for eleven days with all that sewing and washing and drying and testing! Yowza! Your son is blessed to have such a sweet mama :)

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  8. Cris beat me to it....you HAVE to make a smaller version for Henry....he loves it so much!!!

    It's beautiful! Brava!

    ♥ Robin ♥

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  9. Lovely details Lynn. Love those spirals in the velvet. so much to discovered and I saw you lied but we don't blame you!!!!!!!

    Have a nice Sunday!
    3 kisses;)

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  10. eleven days, that must be somem sort of world record. how magnificent, I am drooling here!

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Thanks for leaving your comments as I love hearing from you. Your words of encouragement are why I continue to draw!