Parisian Holiday

A beautiful thing about quilting is getting to craft a quilt perfectly for the person it's for. It's so fun to choose patterns and fabric for a person you know will just love it.

I got a phone call from a lovely elderly lady: she called to ask for a quilt for her daughter. As we got to talking about what she wanted, she told me a little back story on why she wanted this quilt. Her whole life, she had wanted a handmade quilt for her bed. The problem was, handmade quilts were so expensive, she never got one. Now that she can afford one, she deemed herself "too old" to spend the money on one for herself but wanted one for her daughter, who also holds an appreciation for handmade quilts. She plans on giving this quilt to her daughter for Christmas this year.

I loved getting to create a vision together. Her daughter likes "a little bit of modern, but pretty traditional. Mostly traditional". Her favorite colors are teal and coral. So, of course, I had to make sure they got in there.

I started flipping through some older quilt magazines for inspiration, looking for a somewhat traditional quilt block to use with more modern fabrics. I found this delightful "Parisian Holiday" pattern in an issue of Quilting Daily. The directions were a little hard to follow so I ended up figuring out my own measurements anyway.

With 640 half square triangles in this quilt, I decided to make them 8 at time. My Bloc Loc ruler was absolutely invaluable for trimming them up. I did a little time test between my regular ruler and my Bloc Loc ruler. The regular ruler averaged about 40 seconds to trim a block while the Bloc Loc only averaged about 20 seconds. It saved me over three hours of trimming!

I usually stick to baby, throw, or twin size quilts so this queen looked huge on my teeny tiny little sewing table. I had a few tussles with gravity but I think I came out on top.

While I like to do my own quilting, sometimes when I've got a lot going on or a big project (like this queen size beauty). it's so nice to take your quilt top to a long arm quilter. The Warm-Up Shop, a small quilt and heater shop duo, did a beautiful job on the quilting. It was so fun to get it back and see their art work! I love how the design flows smoothly

across the whole quilt without interfering with the design.

After about two and a half months of working on it, I finished the quilt in time for it to be given away as a Christmas gift. Thankfully, although in December, I found a wonderfully warm and sunny Sunday afternoon to take some photos before parting with this labor of love forever.

While the sky was blue and the colors of the quilt bright, I can't help but love how these pictures turned out in black and white!

I love looking and reading about all the quilts that you make. It inspires me, gives me ideas for my next creation, or simply causes me to admire your artistry. I hope this post was able to inspire you!