Eureka!

Wow!!  I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted anything!  I am SO sorry about that, folks!!  What can I say?  Work & family has had me running in lots of different directions as of late!  I'll get back into the Stampin' Up! posts later this week, but for today, I wanted to share with you a project that I've been working on since spring, and finally got completed this past week!!

As you may or may not know, I'm the youngest in a family of 8 kids.  Well, my next oldest sibling (my 'baby' brother) Tim turned 50 in September, and I knew already last fall that I wanted to give him a quilt for his birthday this year.  Years ago on a quilting Shop Hop, I saw a quilt made up called 'Eureka!' and fell in love with it, and my mom got me the pattern as a gift later that same year.  It's been sitting in my pattern stash ever since then waiting to get pulled out and used.  Now, this quilt pattern is NOT for the faint of heart--it's absolutely stunning, and while not impossible, I knew it would be a challenge.  So, when I eventually decided to make the quilt for someone (I actually didn't feel the need to make it for myself--I just knew I wanted to make it), I wanted it to be for a special occasion, and with Mimmy (my childhood nickname for my brother) turning 50, that special occasion was now here! 

I had to chuckle when I told Mom that I was going to make this pattern for him last fall.  She asked if I was sure I wanted to put that much work into a quilt I was giving away!  Now, there are several reasons why I found humor in her asking me that--one is that she was a crocheting fiend who did these super intricate patterns for people ALL the time as I was growing up (so giving things away that I make, I actually learned from HER!).  In addition--all of us kids learned various crafts/hobbies growing up in 4-H.  Most of the boys did wood-working, the girls all sewed, and most of us have re-finished/re-upholstered furniture in there (seeing as that was Dad's business, how could we not pick up some of the tools of that trade?!), along with a lot of other interests that each of us added as we got older.  I knew that while Tim didn't sew, he could still see/understand the craftsmanship in my gift, because it simply was the family we grew up in!

So, I had the pattern figured out, but I needed to try to figure out what Mim's favorite colors were, so I asked him.  I was about ready to wring his neck when his response was 'Earth Tones'!  See, for Eureka! to work, you needed three color-ways--two complementing fabrics and one neutral.  I couldn't just do a variety of earth tones--I needed to 'pick two' and he was NOT helping matters any!!  After some deliberation and discussion with friends, I did finally settle on browns (and I needed four shades, varying from light to dark), and selected creams for the neutral, but still didn't know what I was going to put with it.  My good friend Char with went me the day I went fabric shopping, and we had an "A-Ha!" moment in the store when we saw a brown, burnt orange and cream grouping of fabrics.  It was perfect!!!

Now, 'technically' Eureka! is supposed to use 12 different fabrics--four shades in each color grouping--but with the cream fabric I selected, Char & I realized that I could simply use it for all of the creams in the quilt, which would also allow the other colors/fabrics to 'pop' on the quilt a bit more!  I wound up selecting four shades of tan/brown; four shades of peach/orange, and of course, my cream.  For the backing I decided to use the lightest peach shade of fabric I had selected, and for the binding, one of the darker browns. 

I wasn't going to be starting small on this pattern--my brother has a King-sized bed, which meant the quilt would have to match that!  So in looking at the pattern, that meant I needed to make 144 total blocks, consisting of 9 different designs (I made anywhere from 4 to 24 blocks of each design).  You'll notice in the photo that there are 10 blocks shown, but the middle block in the third row, as well as the block below it are actually the 'same' block--I just had to orientate half of them the opposite direction of the first ones I did.

I started this quilt back in the spring, but there's been a lot going on in my life, so unfortunately, I didn't get it completed by Mim's birthday in mid-September, but my sister and her husband were going to be seeing him over Thanksgiving Weekend, so I knew if I got it done, they'd be able to take it with them and give it to him then!

Once I got ALL 144 blocks made, it was time to start assembling.  I actually broke the quilt down into 'eighths' and created sections that were six blocks across by three blocks down (remember, the quilt itself, having 144 blocks means it's 12 blocks across & 12 blocks down) to make the pieces more manageable.  I turned those 'eighths' into quarters, which I then attached to one another.

Of course, once I got the top assembled, I wasn't home free yet!  Next up was getting it quilted.  So, I set up a time to head over to my friend Pat's house and use her HQ Advante' to quilt it.  The quilt itself was stunning, and there are SO many different directions a person could go, but I decided to stick with a simple all-over meander design. 

The quilting actually went relatively quick--other than a minor hiccup at the start--I didn't get the thread tension set up correctly on the machine (it looked right, I just forgot to put the thread into a groove), so after two passes of the pattern in a half hour, I discovered the thread had badly looped on the bottom of the quilt, which then entailed a hour of ripping out  everything that had just been stitched!!  But after that minor snag, the quilt stitched up beautifully!

I somehow lucked out in that the weekend before I needed to have this quilt done, I had several extra days off from work, so I was able to focus solely on the quilting and attaching the binding, and was able to have the quilt completed three days before I actually needed it!!  Check it out:

And a couple more close-ups of the quilting and the backing/label.  I used a peach thread that matched the backing fabric as my quilting thread.

I was able to get the quilt wrapped up and send it with my sister Deb & brother-in-law Chris this past weekend, and they sent me this photo of Tim with his quilt when he opened the package:

And last night, I got this photo from Mimmy.  Made me smile and warmed my heart to see that he already has the quilt on his bed at home!!  That's exactly where it should be--in use!

Whew!!!  And one would think I'd be sick of sewing by now, but nope--I've been working on the quilt kits I bought back in July in Utah over the holiday weekend, and now have another throw-sized quilt top completed (this one for myself!) and have the basics on a simple table topper ready to go, too!

I hope you & yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend filled with food, family & friends!

Happy Crafting!

Pam