Well, a commission, really, two of them actually. I’ve been working part-time at a local quilt shop for nearly three years now. I work full-time in grants work for a private University, and I’ve always said my part-time gig was to “feed my fabric habit”. But with wedding planning, family activities, and life in general, it has become increasingly more difficult to be tied down to a set schedule of Thursday evening and Saturday shifts at the LQS. So this Saturday is my last day of work there. To keep the extra income flowing, I’ve decided to take on some commission work instead.
I’m making a throw quilt from the clothing of my first client’s late father-in-law, mostly suit pants and jackets, and two heavy wool winter coats. I spent most of a retreat two weeks ago chain-piecing the blocks together…
The amount of lint this left on the Bernina was unbelievable!! Because the fabric I’m using is not 100% cotton, but much heavier weight polyesters, wools, rayons, suedes and blends (some of them with stretch!), I first interfaced everything with a woven, mid-weight fusible stabilizer:
That and cutting was the most time consuming part of the quilt. I did get all of the blocks made, and will be adding sashing and borders next week, before basting, quilting and binding it for her. (I took this shot at retreat, and the blocks hadn’t been trimmed down, so please don’t judge me on the sad looking shapes–now they are nice and square and straight!)
My goal is to deliver her a finished quilt by Father’s Day at the latest. The other thing I worked on at retreat was piecing this top together with my friend, Trina, who gathered blocks from over 25 quilters to make this batik quilt as a gift for a fellow quilter. The pattern is Terry Atkinson’s Foursquare Farmhouse. Pretty, no?
My second commission quilt has not been started yet, but I’m very excited about it. It is for a fellow bride, who does not sew or quilt, and whom I have not met before, but wants me to provide her with blocks for her July wedding, for guests to sign, that will later be sewn into a quilt by me, and serve as the “guest book” for their wedding. Awesome, huh? Her colors are Truffle brown and Daisy yellow, and this is our inspiration piece:
Quilt photo is from here. Can you believe she gave that quilt away?!? Sadly, I was not the winner.
I just realized I missed my 3-year Blog-i-versary, it was March 4, 2008 when I first started this journal. And incidentally, it’s the first journal, in any form, that I’ve maintained beyond the third entry…
Leave me a comment, it’s been quiet around here, and I just want to know you are still out there.
made by a brunnette 
Ooh, I did a disappearing 9-patch for my friends' wedding guest book – the top looks great! My only suggestion would be to draw the seam allowance on the blocks if you're going to sew them together afterward, so the words don't get caught in the seam. Also you might want to pink the edges, those blocks will get handled quite a bit, I imagine. I also ironed freezer paper on the back to help stabilize the fabric when it was being written on.
Hi Doris, I love reading about your upcoming wedding. I hope you'll be posting photos of the event. The colors of the brown & yellow quilt will really be fun to work with. I've been wanting to make a brown quilt. For my oldest son's wedding, I made blocks and had people sign them before the wedding and them had it ready as a gift for the wedding. It takes a long time mailing blocks and a pen and asking everyone to keep it a secret. But it was fun.
Doing commissions to make up for working in the quilt shop is a great idea (do you think you will be less tempted by fabric if you aren't surrounded by it – everytime I walk into a quilt shop I seem to buy something!)
Love that you have given up your hours in the LQS to spend hours doing commissions…..enjoy – your creativity will shine! I take Michelle's point about the seam allowance on the blocks…I had guests at my Granmother's 80th birthday sign blocks and didn't mark the seam allowance so found it hard to set some of the blocks without losing some words……
Happy blog-anniversary….you started just a few weeks before me….in March 2008…I have also stuck to this “journal” way better than any other I have started….here's to the next three years!