Autumn Leaf Pillow Shams

One year ago, I shipped this quilt to my customer Diane.  In late August, she contacted me; asking for matching queen-size pillow shams.  I'd never heard of queen-size pillows, and after a couple of back and forths, we established that she wanted them to fit queen-size pillows that were 20 x 30 inches and the shams would have a flange.  She accepted my quote and said she wanted them by next summer.

I had some down time, while I was waiting for supplies for two different projects, so I decided to go ahead and make the shams.

I've made two Autumn Leaf quilts, and the leafs are a bit tricky.  I dug out my notes and got everything cut.  I didn't take any photos of the process, but if you're curious you can look at the old posts about the quilts.

A couple of years ago, I decided to use the front of men's shirts for closures of the pillow backs.  I went to Goodwill and got two men's white dress shirts, they were perfect.

Here are the two pillow shams on my bed.  I don't have queen-size pillows, but you get the idea.  

May your bobbins always be full,

The Autumn Leaves Quilt is finished!

This is a custom order for a lady named Diane.  After I accepted the commission, I found out she lives in SoCal, about 80 miles away.  That's a first for me, the other commissions have been spread across the US.

I received the deposit in early August and it was finished today.  Diane should have it by early December.  Not bad, four months for a completed quilt.

This is the pieced back, I intentionally cut duplicates of the points that formed the leaf points and the seedpods, to use on the quilt back, and I threw in a little gray triangle for variety, can you spot it?  The upper photo sure shows off the fabulous Long Arm Quilting by Janiel Miller.

I really love this quilt and I'll be sad to see it go!  The finished quilt is 95" x 95".

We still have lots of trees with beautiful Autumn Leaves and some are in the gutter.

When I got down to the clubhouse to photograph the quilt, the auditorium was all set up for an anniversay party.  Pretty fancy.

Looks like a good time will be had, tonight.  Bob and I skipped the party for our 50th, and went on a 6 week trip, 4 weeks on a cruise through the Panama Canal then on to Europe, then stays in Copenhagen and New York.

May your bobbins always be full,

I've got a stack of quilts to bind...

And they're all queen-size.  From the top, Autumn Leaves 95 x 95", Vintage Modern 70 x 87", and Mandalay HSR 85 x 88.5".

It took me about 4 days to get to this point.  I had thought I'd have all the bindings sewn on by now, so much for thinking!

The colors of the bindings aren't showing up very well from the top, they ar Kona Wheat, Kona Black and Kona Cadet.

Now, I'm ready to start on the first one.  Photos to follow, of course.

May your bobbins always be full,

Autumn Leaves Quilt Top is assembled!

The top photo shows the blocks all put together, laid out on my fabulous "design" grass.  Below is the completed Autumn Leaves Quilt Top with the borders applied.  I went down to our clubhouse and laid it out on the dance floor, where I teach Tai Chi, and I stood on the stage to get this shot.

I think the most recent quilt top compares favorably with the original, below.

Now, I need to decide on the quilt back.  Hopefully, this will be at the LAQ by week's end.

May your bobbins always be full,

Autumn Leaves Quilt Top, putting it together.

I have been working away on this quilt top. We've had so many hot, hot, days that when I laid the blocks out in my garage, the only room in the house with a large enough space to lay out a queen size sheet and have room to walk around, it was like working in a sauna.  I pushed thru because I felt like I'd fallen behind due to travel and a death in the family.

I used this photo of the original quilt to get the layout right.  I miss Bob every day, this is just one example of why,  If he were still around I'd have consulted him, because he had a great artist eye.

May your bobbins always be full,

Yes, I'm familiar with a seam-ripper!

Houston, we have a problem!  Yesterday I worked on six Autumn Leaf blocks, and three were incorrect. In the original Autumn Leaves Quilt, that I made three years ago, one of the leaves was like these; and I didn't notice it until it was quilted.  I was a real newbie, then.  I'm so glad I have a seam-ripper. And I'm glad I didn't finish the blocks!

Here, you can see the exact problem, the middle section was flipped upside down.

Here, the three of them are, all corrected,  In case you're wondering whose furry butt that is, it's Ben, the best little guy, and a quilter's best friend.

The last photo shows all six of the Autumn Leaf blocks that were completed today.  I still need to make the seed pod blocks, before I can start to assemble the quilt top.  Here's a photo of the original Autumn Leaves Quilt, can you spot the "maverick" block?

Non-fabric Autumn Leaves, my inspration.

May your bobbins always be full,

More progress!

Early morning driveway shot, I finished these six Autumn Leaf blocks, yesterday. I was determined to finish them; I'd had a delay when my Mom passed away and another when I went to TX.  Determination won, yesterday! Only six more to go, then five seed pod blocks before I can assemble the quilt top.  Today, I worked on the next six blocks, but I didn't finish them, that will happen tomorrow, for sure.

May your bobbins always be full,

More Autumn Leaves

These four beauties were actually ready for posting before I left town!  Life being what happens when we have other plans, got in the way.  I took these on 9/18!  Today, I'm hoping for no distractions; I want to bust out several more Autumn Leaf blocks and get them photographed and posted.  That's my plan!

May your bobbins always be full,

Lovin' these leaves

We're having some much-needed rain today, so this was taken in the garage with the overhead door open to get some natural light.  These blocks are huge, 15.5 inches and I'm thrilled with how they're turning out.  I'm going to try to get one more set done before I teach Tai Chi, a 3 PM, today.  Wish me luck!

May your bobbins always be full,

Autumn Leaves Quilt ~ some assembly

We're having some gusty winds, and that made taking photos outside a bit of a problem.  But, I think you get the idea.  Two Autumn Leaf blocks assembled and 18 more to go.  The next two are laid out and ready to go.  These are so large that two at a time is about my limit.  That's a 24 x 36 inch cutting mat they're laid out on.

It's been over a week between posts because there are a lot of non-sewing things going on.  Hopefully, things will settle down and I can get back to my "day job' of quilting.

May your bobbins always be full,

Autumn Leaves Quilt ~ progress

It seemed to take forever to get to this point.  Cutting the print fabric for the Leaves and Seedpods took about half an hour for each one.  That's 20 times 30 minutes, 10 hours of cutting on the print fabrics alone.  I didn't keep track of time when I cut the Kona White for the background fabric.

I decided to change-up my modus operandi for this quilt.  For Aunt Lorraine's version, I made two blocks at a time.  For each set of blocks, I cut fabric then stitched them together.  This time I have more confidence and I cut all the fabric, then I chain stitched all the side points on the leaves.  The small HSTs on the right, took me an extra step of stitching, but those 2.75 inch cuties will go in another "scrappy" quilt, maybe like this one that I made from Aunt Lorraine's qult.

Now, to get to the next step, putting together the middle points for the leaves and the small points for the seed pods.  Fun times.  What are you up to?

May your bobbins always be full,