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Monday, April 30, 2012

Canon's Graduation Quilt in David Butler's Parson Gray Curious Nature

Warning:  This post is very picture heavy !   I finished Canon's high school graduation quilt this weekend and Katie helped me get it all documented in pictures.  We went to Unity Village in Lee's Summit yesterday and got some beautiful pictures in between rain storms.  The cloudy weather made for some great picture taking!  I really wanted to make sure this quilt made a statement as being "all boy".  So many fabrics are too feminine to make a great guy quilt.  When I discovered that Amy Butler's husband, David was coming out with his own line of fabric prints, I started frantically searching the Internet trying to find them.  Needless to say, so were many other quilters!  These prints were flying off of the shelves at online fabric shops.  Between Hawthorne Threads and Etsy shops I was able to accumulate all the prints that I wanted. Below are the prints I chose............
I also found a pattern on Etsy that I purchased in PDF format to make this quit.  After I got all my blocks cut out, it was time to get really organized and start sewing the sets together...


After all my sets were completed I moved to the living room floor where I had a big enough space to lay them all out and rearrange them until I made sure no two patterns were touching each other.  After I got them all lined up I took the first row back to the sewing machine and then Riley did some rearranging of his own.........
Guess this little stinker wanted them in a different order!  This is what the bichon does every time I work on the floor.  It's a battle I can't win and it's too entertaining to put a stop to it!
Once all the blocks were sewn together I went back to living room floor to sandwich the three layers together...........
All these pins went into securing the quilt.  Approximately 400 of them !
Riley does not like the feel of the safety pins, so he stays a quiet observer up on the couch!
I used a meandering free motion quilting technique.  I'm guessing this part took about 6 hours on my machine.  I kept the right side rolled up while working and I started at the top and worked my way down in about 5 inch sections at a time..........
I had three fat quarters left over that I saved for the binding.  I cut it at 2.5", folded it in half, sewed to the front and hand stitched to the back of the quilt....
We found this old park bench at Unity Village that really worked good with the colors of nature in the quilt........
Another shot inside a stone pavilion..........
Here's a shot of the back of the quilt..........
and a close up of the front............
These fabrics are also very soft and were easy to work with.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what other prints David Butler comes out with in the future.

Canon with his new quilt.......

I had a busy winter making this quilt and a quilt for my niece, Madison, who is also graduating from high school this spring.  Click here to see Madison's string quilt in Amy Butler prints.

Scroll down to see who I have linked up to this week, including:
Amy's Creative Side

21 comments:

  1. Hello! I came here trough the Make something Monday link party! It is in fact a very masculine quilt! And a very beautiful too I must say! :)

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  2. Beautiful! Love that last shot!! :)

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  3. This is stunning!! Such a great use of the fabrics. Do you know where to get the pattern you used?

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  4. I purchased my pattern off Etsy. The name of the shop is SunnysideDesigns2 and the name of the pattern is Big and Tall.

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  5. I really like it! I am working on my first quilt (eeek!) and am using some of the same fabrics. It's for my husband so I must have chosen well. :) It is so hard to find good masculine fabrics. Thanks for sharing!

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  6. Followed over from Make It Mondays. What an heirloom you have created. I love the vintage look of the fabric patterns. Wish I could accomplish something like this.

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  7. That's beautiful!! Do you do the meandering stitch on your regular sewing machine?

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  8. To Christine: Yes I do. You have to have a machine where you can drop the feed dogs. Then I have a free motion quilting foot, sometimes referred to as a darning foot. I taught myself the technique by watching lots of Youtube videos !

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  9. wow! what a handsome quilt! i LOVE the colors, fabric and placement you selected. well done.

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  10. That's a wonderful quilt (I wanted to say beautiful, but it's a man's quilt, so I changed it). I used to live in Kansas City too! You did a great job.

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  11. What a pretty quilt! and 400 pins! Those colors look great together, and it seems that your dog is having a good time, too.

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  12. Hello, my name is Jennifer and I have shared this post over at my blog eatcraftsow.blogpost.com. Please let me know if there is anything you wish for me to remove. Have a great day!!!!

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  13. Love it!!! What was the name of the pattern you used? I have been looking for fabric more masculine!!

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  14. Mae,
    The name of the pattern is BIG & TALL. I purchased it off Etsy. I agree, this is great masculine fabric !!!!

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  15. Love the quilt! Did you pre wash the fabric, and what batting did you use. I'm planning a quilt for my son to take to college, and your quilt is a great inspiration.
    Pam

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  16. PamC: Thanks for the compliment. I do not pre wash my fabrics and the batting is Warm & Natural.

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    1. Thanks. I'm trying to get as much info as possible before cutting into my fabric!

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  17. Hi...yes I have been looking for weeks for a quilt pattern. I love this one you made for Cannon..can i get the pattern from you or somewhere....and can yo give the website for the man who does the male type fabrics. I love that...it is hard to find fabrics for guys.

    Thank you
    My email is Jmacmacsmc@aol.com

    Stephanie Carter

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  18. Stephanie Carter....I purchased the pattern and the fabric off of Etsy. Go to www.etsy.com and type Big & Tall Quilt Pattern into the search box. The fabric is from a line developed by David Butler. Type David Butler in the search box on Etsy too and see if any is still available. Thank you for the compliments and best of luck with your son's quilt !

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  19. This is amazing, I love the manliness of this quilt, Canon is lucky, I'm looking at Parson Gray fabrics for a man quilt! Deb from Perth...

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