Final sail on the Black Sea

It's done, it's done.  I mean really done, binding is complete, better pictures, just has to be delivered. If you've been here in the past few months, you've heard a lot about this quilt, and I was sticking to it doing this and one other project together.  But when it comes to quilting, I've got a one track mind.  Now I can get back to getting the other project together. I did get some better pictures today,  but first it's time for the full story.

The pattern - Aegean Sea by Judy Martin.  I first saw this quilt over at Tamarack Shack   I loved it for the pattern but Kathy's quilting was burned in my memory.  I really loved the round feather wreaths she did in the white spaces.  It gave such motion  and enhanced an already spectacular quilt so wonderfully.  I knew when I saw this, after I stared and studied it for over an hour, that I wanted to make this quilt just so I could quilt it.  Two and half years later, I finally got my chance.

There is a warm hearted soul at work.  This guy has given me bags and bags of old shirts.  I've used them in Quilts of Valor, quilts for Happy Chemo, quilts for Project Linus and yes even some gifts for friends and family.  I know I've made over 15 donation quilts with his shirts and have enough to make 15 more.  This guy is interested in everyone, he makes everyone feel as though there is something special about them.  He chatted with one of the homeless guys by the train and one day on his way home he noticed that the homeless man didn't have any shoes.  He gave him his shoes and went home in his socks.  That's the kind of guy he is.  So he literally gave the shirt off his back because he knew they would be used to comfort someone that truly needed it.  I knew I wanted to make a quilt for Doug, but it had to be special.  You know how it is waiting for that special quilt to be created, time went by and no quilt.  Finally he asked me if I could make a quilt for his newly decorated room, you know just sew some squares together.  LOL, when you really want a special quilt, plain squares just won't do.  You need to cut that material into itty bitty pieces and then sew it all back together and quilt it like crazy.  And then it hit me, Aegan Sea, it was time.  I showed him Kathy's quilt and he said ok, if that's what you want to make.  He had no idea how badly I wanted to make this quilt.  There was one other special person that I made a quilt for, and I showed her the pattern, she didn't like it, she got a different quilt.   But finally, I had a taker.  He did want just black and grey.   Thus the name Black Sea.  I talked him into that tiny hint of blue in the stars to make them sparkle, for which he gave me three shirts. Funny right?  I wasn't too sure how that was going to work, but the in the end I really love it.  That is the story of how this quilt came to be.

Details of the quilt -

• Pattern Aegean Sea by Judy Martin - the book only had queen size, I just added another column of "great blocks" for 3x3 rather than 2x3, (now that was one big nine patch) and two borders:  one background material, six inches finished, one log cabin blocks.
• size 120 x 120, 118 x 118 after quilting.  
• I think there are close to 65 different fabrics in her, at least 8 of them are the recipients shirts
• Batting Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 (my favorite batting of all time, love this stuff).  It is a heavy quilt though, and probably should have gone for Polydown.  But I wanted the softer feel of cotton batting with all that quilting.
• Thread - lots of thread!!  Filtec Premo soft warm grey (50 wt)  on top and Superior Bottom Line (60 wt) in the bobbin.  It's been a while since I've wound my own bobbins.  I think this quilt took 24 bobbins.  Now that's a lot of thread.  
• No idea how many hours it took because when you're having fun creating something you don't even think about the time it takes.  

Now time for pictures.  I'm gonna miss this one on my frame.

Taken at Crystal Lake Beach, the closest I was getting to the Black Sea 

Added border - I wanted something shell like, circular and flowing

I really wanted the stars to shine brightly, framing them worked well.

This is what I think ties it all together, that circular wreath gives it motion and feels like rolling waves.  And really what else would I do besides feathers?

Plain grey on the back

The stars look quite different on the back don't they?

And there you have my Friday Finish on Thursday - woohoo!!!  Don't  you love the feeling of finishing a quilt that you were excited to make and quilt. The feeling of accomplishment is awesome.  This is my second king size quilt this year.  I'm so ready for some smaller projects for a little while.