Stacey Sansom Designs Make-It Monday

Today I am finishing up a quilt top for a special project – The Special Quilt. This was a spontaneous quilt. I came home from visiting my sister, Ann, in Alvin, TX for the weekend. It was a sisters weekend so to speak. My sister was scheduled to have a PET Scan done that Saturday morning. It was also the day of my Aunt’s funeral.

Since Ann was not allowed to travel and my other sister did not have enough days to travel to the funeral in Wisconsin, I kept feeling impressed that we should all be together. We should go be with Ann. I drove across the DFW Metroplex and picked up my sister and niece and we drove to the Houston area after she got off work that day. We spent a great weekend with siblings – together. My Aunt would have wanted us to all be together if we could not be there. We all went Teal in her memory – she died from Ovarian Cancer.

Cancer is very unkind.

Unfortunately, Ann’s PET Scan was rescheduled for the following Monday. It was still great to spend the weekend together. To remember our Aunt and just spend time together.

When I came home, I declared, “I am going to make an all white quilt.”

I saw it in my head and I had a purpose. I just needed to put it together.

I started going through my entire fabric stash. I mean everything. I do not typically work with a lot of white fabrics. I use them as fillers so I do not have a lot of white fabrics on hand. I found a grand total of two solid pieces of white fabric. This was not going to work. Fortunately, JoAnns was having a fabric sale and I had some pretty awesome coupons to use on top of the sale. I went to get fabric. I managed to purchase enough fabric for what I was envisioning for under $20. Score! Of course, this did not include the batting, the borders or the backing, but I would be able to do the bulk of the quilt for $20. I was pretty happy.

Here is what I ended up with. I am sorry for the not so great image quality. I am still working to improve the lighting quality in my sewing room. It is what it is for now.

I bought 6 different white – tone on tone fabrics.

Here are some close-ups of the individual fabrics. I selected fabrics that varying sizes of prints – small, medium, and large. This helps creates texture and variance in the fabrics.

This is what I ended up with. This is the 6 fabrics combined with the materials I already had on hand. The 2 solid white fabric pieces that I had. I pulled out a variety of doilies I have crocheted over the years. I thought they would add some lovely texture. At least that is what I was visualizing.

Close-ups of the doilies. These are not blocked or stretched, they have been in storage for years. Completed and I have done absolutely nothing with. Crochet was a stress reliever for me when I had wrist problems and then it became a problem for the wrist so I have not done much of it over recent years.

Then it began. It just kind of blossomed from there. I let the creative juices flow.

Solid color quilts can be quite flat. When you are using white, especially, this can be a a challenge. I over came this problem by adding texture to the quilt. I created texture panels within the quilt.

Don’t worry, the blue marks are disappearing ink and they will wash out when I am done with the quilt. They were for measuring purposes so that I got the folds and stitching lines in the right place.

There are a lot of ways to add texture to a quilt. This is a ruffle panel on the quilt. I added two of these. This panel had not been pressed yet when I took this picture. My plan for the next time I am doing this is to buy a ruffling foot for my sewing machine. I think I would have ended up with more consistent results.

I am hoping to have the quilt top completely finished by the end of the day today. That is the goal. I have a child home from school today – sick. I have a pest control company coming to set up and establish pest control service in our new place. Bugs and I do not get along. They must go. I have done well to hang out with them since we moved in. They must go. Then doctor’s appointments this afternoon for myself and the sick child. We will see how much I actually get done today.

The Special Quilt
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