JASDIP 105" x 120"
Aug 6, 2007
This quilt, called "JASDIP" (or Just a Sunny Day in Paradise) is for my youngest daughter and her new husband who live in Hawaii. It is from a Karen Stone wall hanging pattern called Birds of Paradise. I quadrupled the size to fit a California king size bed. The pattern is paper pieced with about half of the blocks plain using some of my stash prints, either large prints or batiks. One picture is the whole quilt and the other is a detail of one block and the quilting motif that I used in the block area.
It was a little harder to do than I thought since none of the pieces have 90 degree angles which meant all of the blocks have bias edges and with the odd size blocks every one of the blocks used inset seams. I only had to re-sew one block, but I sewed that sucker 3 times before it was right.
It was quilted with hearts and flowers since it's a wedding quilt. I kept the designs sort of folksy or "funky" as I know my daughter would not like a set or formal pattern. The funky flowers are on the blocks which cover the top of the bed, the hearts are all in the borders. I did it all with my home sewing machine.
For those of you who are quilters: I batted the quilt, then cut out one third of the batt along each side, which kept the weight lighter and it easier to quilt the center of the quilt. When the center was quilted, I returned the batt to one side, quilted it, then did the same for the other side of the quilt. This is described in "Divide and Conquer" by Nancy Smith and Lynda Milligan. It did make it easier to handle the large quilt, but my arms and shoulders could take quilting for only a few minutes at a time. After each motif I had to check the quilt to make sure I quilted in the right direction so got up out of the chair and walked to the back side of my quilting area. This actually helped me flex and stretch a bit and allowed me to quilt longer than I would have if I had just been quilting straight through.
I showed the quilt at the Kuna Quilt Show and won a ribbon for it(what a surprise). It won a 2nd place ribbon in the Great Western Idaho State Fair. It's fun to see your quilt in a show and even nicer to see a ribbon on it! These will be the only shows before I take it to Hawaii for our daughter's wedding celebration in September. I doubt if I will ever make this pattern again...even a small wall hanging, but you never know....I may miss the quilt more than I think I will and want a piece of paradise for my own home.
Labels: Birds of Paradise, Divide and conquer, Karen Stone
posted by quilter99755 @ 7:03 AM
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