Yay! I finished my Box Full of Letters quilt last week. This was a fast sew. I started it sometime in March, I think. The first mention of it here is at the end of March. I am pretty sure I saw Torie’s version, or her start, back in January at the Twilter meetup. That is a 5 month process, which must be some kind of record for me. I don’t even feel like I rushed through making the quilt.
I have to give Colleen credit, because she quilted two gift quilts in record time. She has cleared out her backlog and can get to quilts within a month now. For how long, I don’t know, but for now.
I think part of the speed was that there were limited choices in the quilt:
- limited color palette
- one block
- limited number of blocks.
Those kind of limitations can be frustrating, but, in this case, I gained speed and was able to use the limitations to create a creative layout.
Anyway, you have been here during the whole journey and you have seen my process. I didn’t expect to like this quilt as much as I do and I think I like it because of the layout. I didn’t think it would be that interesting of a quilt. It wouldn’t have been if I had laid out in a straight set, but the diagonal layout really makes it interesting. IMO, anyway.
Looking at this quilt makes me feel like I want to play with this pattern more. I can see making these blocks from scraps and in different sizes depending on the size squares I have around. The pattern is so easy, you barely need a pattern and making these blocks is like eating chips. One just isn’t enough.
This is large lap quilt. It will go to a doctor who has been working with the Young Man every week or two for the past 10 years. She told me she feels like her kid is heading off to college and I have to say that I can’t blame her. I did not put a sleeve on it. Handwork is a challenge right now and stitching through the damn batiks (when will I learn NOT to put batiks on the back???) to get the binding stitched down was difficult. My PT got mad at me.
Oddly, this quilt had a lot of help. Lots of thanks go into this quilt:
- Torie for the inspiration, encouragement and charm pack
- BAMQG for the layout inspiration. I think it was probably Ruth who laid out the Opportunity quilt on the diagonal
- Missouri Star Quilt Company for the pattern and that method of making HSTs (though I suspect someone else thought of it first and MSQC just spread the love)