The Purple Iris Quilt

After months of waiting in line the gifted Irish quilt top has made it into the rotation.  I'm loving how it's looking so far.  Today I'm going to share with you what it took to get this quit to this point.

 It all started with this very loved and wonky quilt top, not made by me. But someone put many hours into her so she deserves to become a beautiful finished quilt.  I feel it's important to make her shine.  My thoughts are, should I leave unfinished projects behind someday, I would hope someone would take the time to make them shine and give them life to the best of their abilities.

She has her issues but nothing that can't be fixed or overlooked.  The embroidery work isn't the best but it finished and it was still a lot of work.  So the first thing to do to start this makeover is to take the blocks apart in order to fix the wonkiness of the quilt top.

The blocks were super wonky and looked to be stretched out of shape.  At first I thought maybe the maker tried to "fix" the wonky block issue by adjusting the seam allowance widths.  Notice I used a plural... WIDTHS.  The seam allowance was all over the place.  Too large in some spots, too narrow in other areas.  Maybe the maker had poor eyesight.  We'll never know but I'm sure whatever was going on they did their best.  I might sound like I'm being critical but I'm just trying to build a story that makes sense in my mind.  I too have made some pretty wonky quilts.  So, I'm not judging the quilt just trying to understand. 

At the same time I must give credit where credit is due, the maker backstitched at all stops and starts.  Good for her, bad for me when ripping out seams but it was the right thing to do especially if the plan was no borders.  Anyway, since the quilt blocks were so wonky and had a couple dirty spots why not give them a nice gentle hand washing.  Of course I let them air dry...for about a week. HAHA!

 

I thought the washing might allow the fabrics to naturally go back into a more square shape.  WRONG!   In my opinion, they shouldn't look like this from a gentle hand washing and soaking in warm water for about two hours.  Sigh. 

The only thing I could do is iron the heck out of them.  Hopefully in the end the quilting will help keep the super shrinkage under control or at least not so noticeable.  

The first block was squared up to 16.5" and became the template for the remaining blocks.

The squared block was laid on top of the next block to be squared.

Then pins were place through the embroidery at matching points.  Look closely and you'll see the pin head through the fabric. The pin goes through the embroidery at the same place on both blocks and stuck into the cardboard underneath.

Once the blocks were matched up the pins were secured in place, and I used a light touch to smooth out the fabric of the block on top making sure not distort the fabric or the embroidery. 

These blocks are 16.5", I don't have a square up ruler that large.  That's why I chose to square up the blocks in this manner.  One side at a time using the 6.5" x 24" ruler. 

Once trimmed to size it was time to put them on the design wall and sing a little Sesame Street song....One of these is not like the others, one of these doesn't belong....  Do you see it?

Let's take a closer look.  The one on the left is the oddball.  There's several differences.  Maybe it was a test block, maybe the maker ran out of thread.  We'll never know.  I like the the whimsy it gives to the quilt, just a tad bit of character and something to make you go...hmmm?

 

Once on the wall I could start playing with the fabrics curated over the last two months.  Many hours were spent looking for what I thought was the perfect fabrics. 

  The two fabrics in the middle came from my stash.  The other two are purchases just for this quilt.  The one on the bottom from a quilt shop in Alabama called Coffee Cup Quilting. She used to have a shop here in Indiana. They don't have website but you can find her on on Facebook.  If you can' t find what you need, give Claranna a call, she might have it.   Anyway...When I couldn't find what I needed locally or online I called her and asked if she had anything with purple flowers and white background.  She sent a photo of the fabric to my phone and I too thought it would be my best option for the sashing in my original quilt plan.

A few weeks later a Judy and I went fabric shopping at a couple new to me shops, that are a little farther than I care to drive for fabric. She on the other hand loves the drive and the adventure.  The adorable Georgia fabric by Brenda Riddle was found at Klaiber's Sewing Center, it's on the top of the picture below.  The quilty wheels started turning and I decided to change the layout from solid sashing pieces to striped with nine patch cornerstones and use the fabric from Alabama as the backing.

When it came time to audition my fabrics I was so excited to finally be at the reconstruction phase.

I cut a few lavender pieces to make sure it was the perfect fabric and.... I didn't like it, it just seems sort of BLAH. 

And so the purple fabric dig began again.  Let's see how this purple dot looks.  Nope not this one, the print is too bold and the color is muddy.

A couple more... one is too pastel the other looks too dirty compared to the purple in the Iris. 

I liked the movement and color of this plaid but sadly I didn't have enough.  That was all the purple in my fabric stash that doesn't have other weird colors on it like orange and red.

All that's was left for me to do was explore the other colors in the quilt. Yellow and green. Both of which are plentiful in my stash.

I love yellow, so happy yellow was first.  And again....a big fat NOPE not for this quilt.  She is screaming at me... "I'm the star of this show, look over here, look at me now!"   But, it's still better than the purples so it could work if it's all I can find in the stash.  

At this point it dawned on me that the problem with the purple fabrics might be all in my head because I don't really care for purple.   Most of those purple fabrics would work well with this quilt.   But before throwing in the towel and settling something that doesn't make me happy I have to see all my options.

A few small scraps of green were pulled and placed on the wall.  I like it much better than the yellow and definitely more than the purples.  But the green could be a little lighter even though the green in the blocks are much darker.

So the next problem was could I find the right shade of green yardage in the stash.  And you already know the answer...YES!  A soft green mini gingham,  Perfect!  It plays well with the tiny purple rose buds in the background print and allows the Iris to be the star.  It has all the right things to say.  It's a softer voice... "I'm here to protect my pretty Iris and make her shine". 

Don't tell anyone I said this....I'm loving this purple/green quilt.  It's going to be hard to let her go but I will.   I know just the right person for this quilt, it will be loved more than I could ever love her.

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