First Finish for 2014 - A Quilt for Adam

My last finish for 2013 led straight to my first finish for 2014. Generally, my boys (there are three of them) don't pay much attention to the quilts I make. But when I shared with my youngest son that this quilt

would be a gift to my sister-in-law, he had a few things to say about that. "You can't give this quilt away. I love this quilt!" Wow. I was shocked. He'd never noticed before. I told him that if he liked that quilt that much, I would make him a quilt next. However, it would not be the exact quilt, but one that had all the things he liked about this one. I really don't like to make the same quilt twice. There's usually enough repetition in one to last.

He and I sat down and went through all the quilts on my Pinterest page to find a good design. The only rule was that his quilt had to come from fabric that I already had on hand. The thing he liked most about the original quilt was the colors. Once we found a pattern, we pulled what he wanted to use from my stash. The pattern can be found here.

First, we pulled blues, then he said he'd like some green in it, too. It really needed a second color so to add some interest, so I'm glad he thought of that on his own. Next, I made some test blocks.

He loves wolves, so that's where I started. He was very happy with these blocks so it was a go to move on with the full quilt. I went ahead and paired the fabrics and cut the blocks.

Then put it all together. I thought this quilt would take me into at least early February but once I get started on a project like this, I tend to get a little obsessive. It didn't take long to have all the blocks sewn.

We've had a whole lot of wet and dreary days here lately, which is good for sewing time, but not so good for taking pictures. Here is the finished top. The guy who is getting this quilt is peeking over the top.

I use the garage floor to layer my quilts. Don't let the sun shining on the quilt fool you. I think it was 20 degrees on the day of layering.

The quilting consists of three lines of quilting on the sashing between the blocks and some free motion circles around the inner square of each block.

Adam's birthday is in January and about the time I was ready to start the quilting, I thought that maybe, just maybe, this quilt could be finished for his birthday. Two days before his birthday, I embarked on a binding marathon.

This quilt finishes at 67 x 89, which is bigger than most quilts I make and it did get finished in time. It was washed and dried on his birthday so he could sleep with it that night.

This is the first time he has really paid attention to each step of making a quilt and he made me tell him each time I finished a step. Once the top was put together, he would take the quilt after each step, put it over his head, and do some sort of crazy song and dance. It was really funny.

Another closer look at the quilting.

The back is done in wide stripes.

It's great when stash makes both the front and back of a quilt.

He loves his quilt and I love it that I was able to make something just for him.

His brother has taken notice and has asked for a quilt to be made just for him as well. We've gone through the designs and he has chosen something far different from his brother. I'm sure there will be another special finish before too much longer.