Part 5 Alyssa Grey's baby clothes quilt - Finished!

Part 1 - Prep, prep, prep

Part 2 - Piece quilt top

Part 3 - Piece quilt back

Part 4 - Sandwich, quilt, and bind

Alyssa's quilt is done! It's hard to get the whole thing in one photo so I"ll share a bunch.

4 blocks make up the center of the quilt top:

• London t-shirt - Alyssa's cousin lives in England and gave her the tee years ago. Alyssa is in England right now for a post HS graduation visit with her cousin.
• Simba - The Lion King was a favorite growing up
• Gryffindor - Harry Potter of course! Alyssa is from the lucky generation of kids that grew up with HP
• Windham Chamber Singers - the 11 below

There are a total of 36 blocks so each quarter of the quilt top is made up of 9 blocks.

Upper left corner

Lower left corner

Upper right corner

Lower right corner

Now for a little reminder of the BEFORE. Can you believe it?!

Let's get back to more of the finished quilt. I wanted to take some photos in natural light so we went to Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth, ME and found a small hill.

Oh and there's no need to worry. I have two huge blankets hidden underneath the quilt. :)

You can see the top of Portland Headlight peeking over in the top left. The guy at the top of the hill is playing an acoustic guitar so there was a nice ambiance going on.

Here's the whole layout of the quilt back! The woman at the top of the photo is strumming the acoustic guitar now. I guess she decided to give him a break. :)

You can't tell in these photos but all the quilt back fabrics are in black, white, and gray except the purple notes and stars on the black bands of fabric at the top and bottom of the quilt back.

I delivered the quilt to Alyssa's graduation party on Saturday, June 2nd. Since it was a surprise for Alyssa, I had to think about the best way to present it...without completely overwhelming her. The finished look was a surprise for Karen too. She hadn't seen anything in progress so I was really hoping she'd like how it turned out. I decided to fold the quilt so they'd see the tour shirt first when it was unwrapped. I wrapped it in a black fabric tablecloth and tied a colorful Class of 2012 graduation themed ribbon around it. The ribbon was super wide so it helped hold the whole package together - no tape or pins required!

It's hard to believe that I finished this entire project in under 6 weeks!

Fun facts

• The finished quilt size is 86x86
• It took 88 hours to construct it from when I started cutting up all the clothes to when I finished attaching the binding on the quilt edges. I kept track of the actual hours as I worked but I had planned out the schedule on my smartphone's calendar in advance. I didn't keep track of time spent designing and shopping for supplies.
• It is reversible! The quilt back is made up of over 35 pieces (typically a quilt back of this size would be 3 large pieces) and was purposefully done in a different color scheme so Alyssa has two different looks to choose from.
• The top of the quilt is made up of dozens and dozens of fabrics. I cut and ironed on over 200 pieces of featherweight fusible interfacing to keep everything stabilized before I started piecing it together.
• There are several pockets mixed into the quilt top from different pairs of overalls, jeans, and outfits. You can slip secret notes into them.
• I finished the quilt Saturday, May 26th (Memorial weekend) and delivered it one week later. I didn't start sewing anything else until Sunday, June 3rd but I did completely rearrange and reorganize my sewing room during that non-sewing week. :)
• After the quilt was done we immediately went to Fort Williams Park for the impromptu photo shoot. That was followed by celebratory frosty treats from Kettle Cove Ice Cream and trip to the beach.
• I lost the post-it note that had more fun facts like how many appliques are on the quilt top. You can't see most of them in the photos but they're super cute in person.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This was a very fun project for me to complete! I'm honored that I was entrusted with creating something new using precious items from Alyssa's childhood and I am very proud of the final product. Alyssa and Karen both loved it! :)

Linked to these blog parties:

http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/2012/07/transformation-thursday-no-161.html

http://www.sew-much-ado.com/2012/07/we-did-it-wednesday_17.html

http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/2012/07/whatever-goes-wednesday-126.html

http://www.creationsbykara.com/2012/07/look-what-i-made-link-party-7-18-2012.html

http://ladybug-blessings.com/?p=2499

http://itssoverycheri.com/2012/07/15/its-party-time-7-15-2012/

http://www.733blog.com/2012/07/sugar-spice-120.html
http://www.soyouthinkyourecrafty.com/2012/07/im-crafty-party-21/

http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2012/08/august-before-and-after-party.html