Jean's Quilt

This is the quilt I am going to enter in to the quilt fesitval.

Amy is hosting a blogger's quilt show this is my official entry.

My husband has two jobs he works in the shipping department of his friends company.

He also works for Carhartt clothing. He installs all their store displays, he builds the pant bins, hanging displays, signs etc. So if you live in the western United States and are shopping for work pants with your husband chances are pretty good that my husband built the pant bins.

He worked with a very nice lady named Jean. She always looked out for him, gave him a heads up when work was coming his way, and would fight for work for him. She became a great friend to us over the years. Corporate decided to change fixture companies, which meant that we would loose Jean, and that she would no longer have a job. It was a really hard time for us. Would the new company still want my husband to do the installing, would the next person help us out like Jean always did. I am sure you all have had similar experiences in your life. Things have worked out well and we are fine, and Jean decided to retire early.

Now this is what my husband will always say to me when he wants me to make a quilt for someone.

"I feel like we should do something for her" Translation can you make a quilt? He has said this to me over the years. When there was someone who helped him with his company, when his sister's friend got her citizenship. This is what he says "we should do something nice for them" then I get to get quilting. 

I had bought a quilting book years ago called laps from fats. It is a collection of quilts that you make out of fat quarters. I found a FQ bundle of Amy butler's midwest modern collection.

This was perfect for Jean because

1- she is from Ohio and

2- her favorite color is sea glass blue.

Here it is...

Front

Back

I had some printable fabric and had Good Looking write her a thank you note.

He wanted the Carhartt logo included in the quilting.

My quilter did two like this

and one like this, she put extra batting behind it so it would pop out.

Can you see the puffy one there.

Here is a closeup of the quilting from the back.

Now something that I didn't quite expect when I made this quilt was the amount of scraps I was going to have. Then what was I going to do with all those scraps. Since they were "designer" scraps I wasn't about to throw them away and it didn't seam right to just throw them in the scrap bin.

Then I learned about the Ticker Tape quilt and I wanted to give it a try.

Since I did have a limited number of scraps I pinned every piece on.

I started in the center and worked my way out. so it is spaced further apart on the edges.

Front

I love how cute and soft the edges get when washed,

and just look at those lovely little squares on the back.

When I started making this my husband asked why I was making it. I said I saw it on a blog and wanted to try it, and he said "you are such a geek" it is true I am. It turned out to be a good idea to make it though. Just as I was finishing it he went to Arizona for a job and it turned out to be the same day as a friends birthday, so he had a gift for her too.

I am now in love with the idea of buying the fabric for one quilt and having enough to make two quilts.

Two for one, baby.