Friday, February 5, 2010

She's Done . . . . . . .Part I of III

When I held up Toulouse, after sewing on that last border, I thought to myself, "she's done"....then I was like, hey when did Toulouse become a girl! My quilts aren't just gender neutral, they're genderless! In the past it's always been it, it, it, when I think of my quilts, but this one is all female. And you remember how I thought the red and white background was a little too bold in the beginning? Now I like it, I think it makes her sassy! So that's her name, "Sassy Toulouse".

This is finished quilt number 55, she measures 75" X 75", and has 1,561 pieces. I started her right after the first of the year and finished her on 2/1/10. Two days later than my schedule but that's OK, sassy ladies always keep you waiting. This is a Miss Rosie's Quilt Company Pattern.
I used Maison de Noel by Three Sisters for Moda, the fabric Carrie used for her pattern.

Now that she's done, I can tell you that she was troublesome as a child. At first, it was just getting the fabric. This family of fabrics came out several years ago and is scarce! Then it was trying to decide how to best use the fabric that I got, then we all decided that "controlled scrappy" was the best way to assemble the blocks.

Then once I added the sashing and started connecting the rows, I had this problem . . .


See it..second row of 9 patches, third 9 patch from the left....see how it looks like an 8 patch, that right hand upper corner just blends in with the background fabric. It was scrappy red fabric, but that piece had too little red in it! I told myself it was OK, once I got all the piecing done it would not stand out. I told myself that all night long. What would you have done?

Well the next morning it was still really bugging me, but I knew if I took that one little one and a half inch square out, I risked getting a better color but with a poor fit. And truth be told, it looked OK up close, it was just when you stood back that it screamed, "lookie here, look at this 8 patch block". I knew myself well enough to admit that my eyes would be drawn to that corner every time I looked at that quilt. So I swapped it out, and it only took around 20 minutes! The best 20 minutes I've ever spent on a quilt.

So I got the rest of the center pieced then I had this to deal with.....


as I've mentioned in other blogs, Lisa/Stashmaster and Nicole/Sister's Choice were sewing along on this quilt pattern too. Lisa had the Maison de Noel fabric and we did a little exchange where Lisa provided the fabric, we both made 4 flying geese from each set of fabric, then mailed 2 and kept 2. I was thrilled with my assortment of geese, but liked to drove myself crazy getting the perfect order. I arranged them in 4 rows, the first attempt took an hour. Two hours later I came back and made a few changes, then went to bed. I dreamed that I took all the geese down, wrote down all the possible combinations and started again. I did not do that, but I did move a few around that morning. One more look-see, a few more tweaks, then I sewed the geese into rows. Lisa grabbed one from her stack then one from my stack and sewed. I can hardly wait to see how that worked out......oh to have such faith in the quilting fairies!

There are several things that I really like about this pattern, one is the sashing...see those little one inch pieces..I love that sashing..how clever was that!

And these stars in the corners....perfect. Additionally, this quilt came together like no other. I sewed those geese together and they fit on that border perfectly, no fudging required.
Thanks Carrie Nelson, designer extraordinaire!

Also, thanks to the folks who helped me with my fabric acquisitions, I couldn't have done it without you.

And finally, now that's it all done, what I like most about this quilt is that I made it with friends.

Lisa and Nicole are blogging about their Toulouse quilts today too, go check them out, I've yet to see them myself, I can hardly wait!

On another note, if you've not shared something quirky about yourself yet, don't forget to do so on yesterday's post to qualify for my 100th Post Giveaway! If you have left a comment, go back and read them all, they are really funny. I laughed all day yesterday as they came in.

And finally, my blogging friend Rene is celebrating her 100th post today. We started our blogs about the same time. I'm sure she has something fun planned too, we better go check it out!

32 comments:

  1. I love this quilt and it's just beautiful. I would have probably changed out that darn square, too. Great job; it's another quilt you've shown that I want to make!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are a perfectionist! I would never have changed that square - it would have been my humility block!

    ReplyDelete
  3. It turned out WONDERFUL! I love Miss Rosie's patterns and I'm now tempted to pick this one up now. I know how you feel on the controled scrappiness. I am EXACTLY the same way. I will always find something that needs a tweak. Congrats!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh Thelma...it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!! Carrie designs wonderful quilts and you made it SING!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thelma, it's gorgeous! I'm so glad you included the special blue - perfect. A fun journey, indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Absolutely beautiful! What an amazing pattern.

    ReplyDelete
  7. You ladies did a fantastic job! It's gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  8. You are a perfectionist. But it looks awesome. I've yet to see one of your quilts that didn't make me look at my piecing in shame, but not for long. I have a short memory ;)

    ReplyDelete
  9. she's a lovely, lovely work of art!

    i tweak, too - sometimes to the point of not being able to move on - and i have bad dreams about things that i know needed to be tweaked but i went to bed thinking that enough was enough ... because enough really isn't always enough

    i count the pieces in my quilts, too ... and i add up how many yards of thread went into piecing each one ... and i sort m&m's by color sets before i eat them ... but that's not weird - it's organized

    ReplyDelete
  10. You are way more perfectionist than I am, my friend. But your quilt is lovely. Please stop by and see her brother on my blog. But don't cringe when you see the borders with red geese right next to each other (both sides!) Ack! But it's scrappy and fun and carefree, and I love mine! It was fun to work on this together.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I started with a plan for the geese in the border behaving themselves, but soon got mixed up and just went with wherever they wanted to be.
    Your quilt is gorgeous Thelma! I wouldn't expect anything else from you! This was such fun.

    ReplyDelete
  12. It's gorgeous! And you finished it so quickly...wow!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love Sassy Toulouse! Just gorgeous! I knew you quilted in your sleep! Told you :)
    Hugs,
    Donna

    ReplyDelete
  14. Love it! Especially the name. It's a perfect fit.

    ReplyDelete
  15. What a gorgeous quilt. I love your background selection. Now I am going to have to go order the pattern.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Beautiful! I love how the red background gives it a pink glow. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  17. I love this quilt...and as I read all of your blogs it's been a lot of fun to see the progress!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Just beautiful! I didn't offer an opinion at the time -- because I couldn't decide -- but now that you're finished, I think the 'controlled scrappy' use of the blue fabric is very pleasing to the eye. Can't wait to see this one quilted.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Just found your blog and have had such fun perusing all your posts. I have to say that you and I have similar likes when it comes to quilt patterns. I love the traditional and challenging quilts. You do wonderful work. I have now added you to my blog list and will definitely be back!

    ReplyDelete
  20. "She" is indeed beautiful. Of course, we have come to expect nothing less than extrordinary eye candy from you Thelma. Thanks so much for sharing how she came together and the grand finale. Truly wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Beautiful! I love Miss Rosie's patterns myself and that collection as well. I would have had to fix that 9 patch too. I just finished my Madeline last week and not before I changed one of the stars centers, it just wasn't right. I'm not a perfectionist when it comes to most things but I love my quilts to be just right.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I've seen all 3 now and love them all!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Yes, she is beautiful. And I say don't sweat the small stuff.....I love it. gloria g.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Nicole has been teasing us by showing part of her quilt. This is a wonderful design and I love how each of you made it. I'm glad you changed the 9-patch so that you like it now--I'm the same and always find my eye going to the "imperfect" spot on my work.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Your quilt is awesome. I have now added that pattern to my must-do list! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  26. I think I'm in love Thelma! Really - she is sassy and B-E-A-utiful! Love the fabric and the pattern! Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Such a beautiful quilt! Thanks for sharing all the pictures. I can't believe you got this done so quickly with all the pieces!

    ReplyDelete
  28. It's stunning. What a work of art!

    ReplyDelete

I try to respond to all my comments but sometimes I just don't get the job done. Please know that I am reading your comments and appreciate you taking the time to add a little of yourself to my blog.