Alan's Crown Royal Quilt -- finished

I've been working on this quilt, made of the flannel bags that Crown Royal brandy comes in. I didn't know (or ever really thought about) that people can buy different size bottles of the stuff and that the bags come in different colors. I still don't know why the different the colors, but that doesn't matter in quilt making.

The flannel increases the warmth and weight ante. Even though I used a thin cotton batting, the quilt is pretty heavy.  Last month when I wrote about Alan's quilt, I had finished the top. Since then I went to Paducah, babysat several days, and helped care for Richard's parents, both of whom are elderly and quite sick. 

Getting to the quilting was a challenge in finding time but I was determined to finish it before the next guild meeting, which is Monday. I met my goal! But that's all I've managed in the studio.

Milly and I stole out for a few minutes to take pictures of the quilt. The light was probably perfect since it was dusk, but that was a stroke of luck. I decided to throw it on Will's boat for a few shots thinking that it would make a masculine prop. It's definitely a guy quilt, even though it's mostly purple. 

I pieced a backing from some of the fabrics in my stash and thought that plaids would give it a more masculine touch. Of course, I didn't have enough plaids, so I just found some yardage that didn't have flowers on it. Really, that was my standard for choosing fabrics. I haven't shown the quilt to Alan (Dusti's boyfriend), but it's for Alan's dad , whom I've never met  so I couldn't choose fabrics specifically for him. In the end this just seemed one way to go. 

Since there were a few small bags in green and purple, I put those on the back and added darker green to make it even more masculine. I'm not sure I hit the target, but I tried. What do you think? Do the colors and plaids help?

Try to ignore the grass. I forgot that the flannel
picks up everything!

For the quilting, I chose a large stipple because it's fast and easy. I took time to make sure that the seams on the outside of each bag would be caught in the stitching so that they flipped from one side to the other. This gives lots of texture and a ripple look that I like. I've done this with other quilts but those needed more work. The seams on this quilt were built in, so I had to take advantage of that. 

		Quilt Stats
	Name:	Alan's Crown Royal quilt
	Size:	67 x 82
	Fabrics:	flannel Crown Royal bags from client
	Backing:	yardage from stash
	Binding:	Kona gold
	Quilting:	large stippling
	Completed:	2018 May

Link Ups!

My Quilt Infatuation (NTT) 

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish It Up Friday)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)
Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!) 

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: Quilts for Guys, Men, and Boys

Happy Father's Day! Below are the fathers who have a great deal of influence in my life. All of the boys and their families were here today, making messes, huge ruckuses, and enormous fun.

Riley, my dad who died in 2012
This is from his 70th birthday party; he died at 81.

Richard, my husband of 38 years 
He was in his 30's in this picture,
 still as good looking at 57.

Our rough looking bunch of boys--
don't you know they're all now clean shaven!
Will (oldest), Rory (youngest) and Adam (middle)

There are many more ideas for guy-themed quilts on my "heart, quilts" board. I hope you had a wonderful day with your children and grandchildren. 

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: B O W T I E S

It's February and Valentine's Day. There are lots of reasons to dress up coming in the next few months: weddings, proms, graduations, and so on. Guys claim they don't like dressing to impress but, in my experience and I did raise three, they generally like the way they look once it's all done. After all, they can be pretty impressive.

"Bow tie quilts?" you ask. Well, sure!

And finally, two bow tie quilts I've made.  The first is Black Tie Affair, made in 2011 and one of the first quilts quilted on the long-arm, the second is 50th Anniversary Quilt, which I made for my parents which was in 2007.   

a bow tie quilt I made in 2011 and blogged about here

a bow tie quilt I made in for my parents'
50th anniversary and blogged about here

Happy Quilting,

Customer Necktie Quilt ~~ Finished!

That's right.  The men's necktie quilt that I was making for a customer is off the list.  It was fun to figure out how the Dresden Plate would come together but even better was quilting it. 

I haven't heard back from my customer, so I really hope she likes it.  

I treated the negative space as though each Dresden ray extended to the edge of the lighter gray. 

That allowed me to play with different quilting motifs.  And I got to have fun in smaller spaces, so if I chose a motif that is rather slow going, I wasn't disappointed that I had a huge space to cover.

I also played with the rays themselves.  After dividing the background into quadrants, I placed the ties so that either 7 or 8 ties would fill each quadrant.  Although I didn't worry so much about placing the ties "just so," Richard came in and insisted that I rearrange them.  In the end, the four yellow ties  border each quadrant and create an X.  

The darker gray frame has a different quilting motif.  I used a curved filler that quilts up very fast and easy.  I added the center cover for the Dresden Plate using a solid blue tie that my customer chose.   And finally, created a border using what was left of some of the ties in the quilts.  

  
I was a little surprised at how much the border wanted to twist, but I assume the problem is that I cut the 2 1/2 strips at the wrong angle in my attempt to get enough border.  

The most difficult part of making this quilt was stitching in the center where the ties overlap.  Some of the ties are very thick, so my machine wanted some encouragement to push through, but we made it.  If I were to make another, I would definitely deconstruct the ties and remove the interfacing to reduce the bulk.  It turns out that deconstructing ties is much easier than I originally thought.

Linking up with
Crazy Mom Quilts (celebrating 9th year anniversary!)

Happy Quilting,