O is for orange

Hi everyone! How are you doing these days? Are you getting ready for 2020 to be finished? I certainly am ready to kick this year to the curb and move on to something else. Before that, though, I have to finish grading these confounded exams and finish up a bunch of quilty projects. Which of those do you think I am looking forward to more? At this point, I honestly couldn't choose!

I hope you are all in the mood for color and brightness today, because I have a finish to show off that is very, very bright and very, very orange:

 

Yep, the big orange quilt is finished and ready for my nephew! Everybody do your happy dance now, because this was a bear to get done and I am so, so happy to see it finished and in the mailing box.

 

 

This is the Elvira pattern from Gudrun Erla, and she had a quarantine quilt along for it some time ago. Somehow I hadn't made a quilt for my nephew, even though I know he likes them because my sister-in-law's mom was a quilter before Alzheimer's took her. He's grown quite a bit since then, and he needed a couch quilt that would cover his 6 foot 4 frame. I (foolishly!) asked him what color he would like, and he requested orange. I think this fits the bill!

 

I was determined to quilt this myself, which I eventually succeeded at, but I have to tell you-- it was a bear and a half. This quilt finished at about 65 by 87, which is much larger than I usually think I can handle (but a great size for Joe!) I knew I'd quilt this with a walking foot and just straight lines, so I thought it would be okay. Well, it took me four days to baste this monster, and even then I was obsessive about flipping the quilt and checking the backing after every stitching line. I even resorted to a few small spots of spray basting to keep things from shifting.

 

The lines here are about an inch and a half apart, and they took forever. There are a few wobbles, but mostly the lines turned out straight because I was obsessing over them and stitching pretty slowly. I'm not sure it's apparent in the pictures, but on the top half of the quilt, the lines go diagonally, and in the bottom half they are straight. In person this looks great, and it was easy enough, but it did take a long time, and then I had to bury the threads from the bottom half. After all that worrying, it worked out fine. I used an antique gold thread for the top and a gray for the back, and somehow that worked, too!

 

 

The backing is a geometric gray print, and I used whatever pieces I could find to make a scrappy orange binding, which I then spent several evenings stitching to the back. I love the binding, and it used up a whole lot of the leftover orange pieces that I still had. Looking at the scrap basket, it seems like I'm back to a "normal" amount of orange scraps, which feels pretty nice. Orange may be Joe's favorite color, but it isn't mine!

 

I hope you've enjoyed this bright and happy quilt, and that you got a nice dose of happy color. It does brighten the day, doesn't it? I'm hoping to have a few more finishes before the end of the year, so stay tuned! And please stay healthy and safe, too! 

 

 

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday, and Brag About Your Beauties