It All Starts With A Blank Slate

I have begun the layout of John Q quilt, by spreading out a white sheet to be my "design" wall.  Trust me that the sheet is white, very white, but it is picking up the tan wall paint and giving it a tan hue.

Then using my iPad, and some general direction from another layout from the stained glass denim quilt, I began to layout the different sized squares.

To this point, which is about 55" X 58".  This is a starting point, because I need the quilt to cover a double bed, so about 80" X 88".  Right now we are working on getting the randomness to the liking of the client.

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John Q Quilt Begins

Today, after doing some house cleaning (I am meeting my in-laws for the first time this weekend), I was able to finish cutting out the beginning squares for the John Q quilt.  I have enough different sized squares to start a layout of a random design.  Once the customer sees and likes the layout, I will cut some more squares, if needed, to make it the proper size.

The customer's original thought was to have mostly solid squares, with a few prints thrown in here and there in the layout.   I will have to wait until the first part of next week to do the layout (I am thinking of laying it out on a white bed sheet) as I need a block of time to get all of the blocks in place and then communicate with the customer.

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Next Custom Order Project - John's Quilt

While out of town for the last three weeks, I received a new custom quilt order.  I am going to nickname this quilt "John Q".  While in New Mexico, I was able to go fabric shopping with the individual and pick out the fabric of the quilt.  This quilt is going to be laid out sorta like (with some modifications)  the quilt pattern below by  Lucy's Quilts.  If you are interested in getting this pattern, follow the link and then in the comment section ask her to send you her pattern, "Stained Glass Denim Quilt".

 Here is the color swatch page.  Each swatch has a corresponding number, so when we are discussing the layout and pattern of the quilt long distance, we will know what fabric we are talking about which will hopefully eliminate any confusion.

So before I can begin to work on this quilt, I am choosing to for the first time in my quilting making, washing the fabric first before cutting it out and stitching it together.  I am choosing to do this, because the colors are very dark (something I don't usually use unless they are wall hangings, and they don't get washed anyway).  I am afraid that the darker colors will run or bleed onto the lighter colors, so I am washing the darks in one load and the lights in another load.

This picture shows how I prepared the vast amour of yardage of fabric for the washer.  I am fortunate to have a front loader washer, so the fabric won't get wound around the center agitator of top loading machines.  But, I still wanted the fabric to stay as flat and together as possible, so I laid each piece out, selvage to selvage and folded it into fourths, and then pinned it together at approximately 12' intervals.  This will keep the fabric from becoming a crumpled mess and will much easier to iron when it is all done being laundered.  

Next step will be cutting out all the different sized squares for the quilt top.  Stay tuned...

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