Commissioned Quilt

It was the first quilt that I've ever been paid to make, and it was a beast. Cory's coworker heard in passing that I make quilts, and once she heard that she kept after it until Cory decided she was serious and showed her pictures of my projects past. 

(Molly's green quilt)

She picked this green quilt I'd made for my BFF Molly and said she'd like one just like it in blue & white, but also much bigger. So we negotiated a price (I gave her a screamin' good deal), she paid Cory and I got to work.

Going to the fabric store to select all the fabric for a quilt like this was daunting. I don't know this lady, or her daughter's boyfriend (who the quilt is going to be a gift for), nor have I even met her, and she's paying me to do this! No pressure right? :)

I asked Cory plenty of questions before-hand, and gathered as much information as I could about what she wanted. It was easy enough. Like she said at the get-go, she wanted it to be twin-sized, blue & white with blue fabric, preferably minky, on the back. That was all the direction I was given. 

 (Fabric selection)

I'm pretty sure that if you all could see me shop at Jo-Ann's you would think I was neurotic. I have a system. When it comes to selecting all the fabric for a quilt at once instead of piecing a quilt face together from remnants, it gets weird. I seriously do about 4 laps through every fabric isle grabbing everything with potential. Then I find an empty shelf (there always is one) where I set up all of my potentials and begin arranging, adding, subtracting and eliminating. When I think I have it, I step back and take a pic. If the pic is good, I head to the cutting counter.

So this is what I came up with!

 (First set of blocks laid out as a test)

I can always tell that a "crazy cut" quilt is going to look good if I get nervous as I make the first set of blocks. It's a weird feeling. First, I start second-guessing myself and doubting if my fabric choices were off, then I realize that every time I feel this way at the beginning, it always looks great. The real litmus test is to lay out the first set of blocks once they're pieced and trued. That kind of foreshadows the rest of the project.

(before I ripped it apart)

I hit a road-block of sorts with the backing. I use minky all the time, and it usually puts up a fight, but this time it brought out the big guns. Lets just say after a lot of stress and a lot of work for nothing I pulled my nearly finished quilt apart and put super soft navy blue flannel on the back like I probably should have in the first place.

In the end, it turned out just how I'd hoped. I cleaned it up, folded it up and put it in a bag ready for Cory to take it away. Then I remembered I needed to take some pictures since I'd never see it again! So it's a bit wrinkly, but here's my finished product!! (some pics in daylight, some at night... I pulled an all-nighter and finished it between 4 & 5 this morning!)

She asked me to embroider "A mother's heart is a patchwork of love" and "Jeremy 2011" onto the quilt. So I made a strip to go across the back and added the message there.

:)