Dear Leah, Chris' Quilt

Dear Leah,
I wanted to give you an update on Chris' Quilt.  I also wanted to remind you that I had told (warned may be the better word) you that I had never done a commissioned piece before or worked with so much jersey material.....I say that in hopes that you will understand that when you read about this journey Chris' shirts and I are on, you see it truly as a journey...not to be rushed.  Thank you for not giving me a time frame.

This journey of redesigning all of Chris' shirts into a new design, with a new purpose, has been a bit more complicated than I had first anticipated.  I'm sure you could have found someone else that could have already had this quilt finished for you, but I am so thankful you asked me to.  I never take for granted that each little 2 inch square that I am holding is a memory for you.

This weekend, I finally got all the shirts cut into 2 or 3 inch strips.  I began the process of sewing 2 strips of the 2 inch strips together and then cutting that combination into 2 inch segments.  With these segments, I can build the blocks of the quilt.  With the 3 inch blocks, I made the white/colored squares you see below.  They will make the points of the leaf.  This step takes a little longer since the technique for making these half square triangles (as they are called) requires starting with 2, 3 inch squares, marking them, sewing, cutting, ironing, and then squaring them up to 2 inches.  Each square makes 2 HST.

The first set of leaf blocks will have the colored fabrics making up the body of the leaf.  This is what the finished block will look like.  I have to make 15 of these.  Then I'll have to make 15 blocks where the colored fabrics make up the back ground of the block and the body of the leaf will be white.

I have everything set up now to do more of an assembly line process while making the blocks.  I have the centers of all the first 15 blocks made.  I'm working on all the points of the leaf to add around what I have already made.  My plans are to have these 15 blocks done by this weekend, when I'll then start on the other 15 blocks.

I'll be honest...at first it wasn't easy to sew on the jersey material.  I switched needles and worked out my technique to make the materials slid through my machine without jamming it...which it had done a few times before, causing me to have to literally take my machine apart.  I can do a block fairly quickly now, that I have all the parts of the block done.

As I said, I never take for granted how special my task is,.  Every piece matters, it can't be replaced.  I'm being extra careful not to make a mistake.  We picked this pattern knowing how much Chris loved the outdoors.  I thought you might like the fact that the name of the fabric I'm using for the white background is called "Snow".

I'll continue to keep you updated with our journey.
Deborah