Category Archives: custom

So, a few weeks ago (like March 8thish) my husband went to the dentist to have some major cleaning done. He came telling me about the conversation he had with the hygienist…
We will call him J and her T…

T: So what does your wife do?
J: She makes quilts. (notice no mention of cooking, cleaning, laundry…LOL)
T: Oh, wow, I just bought a queen size handmade quilt. It should arrive any day. It is a (Not going to use the name, sorry)
J: Oh, was it expensive?
T: Kind of, it was $$$. I wish I had known I would have asked your wife to make me one.

Hubby comes home and repeats story. He remembered the price, but not the maker’s name I got that info later, from T.).

Fast forward to March 29thish. Hubby has to go back for second half of his procedure. (This is where you better laugh. Seriously!)

I am minding my own business when I get a text from J…OK, now I am at home. J is at dentist. T is working on his teeth.

My phone buzzes, I read my message which says,

“T got her quilt and there is something wrong with it. I told her you could fix it.”

(See, you are laughing, right? I was. OK, not really, at this point, but I was before it was over.)

I responded that maybe he better call me to talk about this because it kinda depended (A LOT!) on what was wrong with the quilt.

I was then told it had rooster fabric and it wasn’t supposed to so could I just remove and replace it? (Uh, sure…NOT!!) I am pretty sure he had visions of me just snipping out the offensive pieces and slapping new stuff in there. Hmm.

I reiterated that a phone call was most definitely in order. Pronto. Oh, and to quit promising things I probably couldn’t deliver!

So, bottom line, at the end of the day I chat with T. I let her know that I really had NO way of knowing IF I could help her without seeing the quilt.

So, on the 30th of March she brought the quilt to show me. I will simply list some of the problems.

She ordered one pattern, in specific colors and fabrics, in a queen.
She got a king with the wrong colors and fabrics.
Oh, and there was a little “signature” tag on it that said “MADE IN CHINA”

How do you tactfully tell someone that the nightmare was made in China and not handmade? Oh, and do you even bother to point out that the secondary fabric pattern (that “coordinates” with the roosters) is fish? Maybe it wouldn’t be prudent to also notice/mention that two of the seams were already pulling apart? Perhaps you leave out the part where two different colors were used on the quilting…and it wasn’t supposed to be that way? I can go on….but I won’t.

I did not take pictures of the quilt.

By the end of the night I was going to make a (handmade in California, LOL) quilt for her. A queen size quilt. We settled on some fabrics from my stash. We were (yes, were) going to use a very basic square in a square pattern. I think they were going to end up 20 inches each (that was many changes ago…)

I somehow knew (or felt) like she was not going to love what she had chosen so I did not cut into anything…..

We spoke on the phone and it was determined that she wanted to do something “different”. She had been looking online…Gathering ideas…So we agreed to meet at a fabric store and come up with fabrics and a design.

Hours (that included being shown on her phone the MANY elements she liked in various quilts, looking through books and magazines…) we had a plan.

This plan was log cabin blocks surrounding a “panel” (that I would create from flying geese) of trees, with a scrappy 2 inch border around the log cabins and a 14 inch drop of more flying geese trees (guess I better learn how to make them geese, LOL!)

Here is the panel that I created (it will have more “hill” lines when I quilt it):

Here are some random pictures of possible layouts for the log cabins:

Here is what we settled on:

Sorry these pictures are SO crazy bad, but this was the “idea” for the 14 inch drop. Add neutral colors between the trees and call it a “drop” (ok, probably not as funny as *I* think it is…LOL)

I would be thrilled to show you the actual tree drop, but, um, T changed her mind (see above picture with MORE log cabins…). Yes, really, she changed her mind. Only the corner trees stay (and the center “panel”, of course)…

So, there is a new plan for the drop. We have backing (a tonal flannel). We have binding (one of the browns). We have a plan. I am (sort of) racing to finish this. Not because I have a deadline (I don’t) but because I don’t want T to change her mind again…LOL…running out of fabric for mind changing!

For the record, it is likely she will want window dressings (for 3 windows) and a wall hanging and pillows to coordinate, so the trees will probably get used anyway and I learned how to make flying geese trees!

In spite of changing colors, layouts and patterns midway, I have to say I am actually really loving this quilt. I definitely would not have come up with the design or colors as something for me, but it is looking great! This quilt is going in to a ski/mountain themed guest room.

As of today I am applying the binding! Again, not “my” colors or theme, but I really like this and I learned a lot along the way, LOL.

When it is washed and dried I will share finish photos and the complete stats FYI, yes, I did a lot of paper piecing…I love paper piecing, and it is a good thing!

Back to binding I go…..

~RACHEL~