I am thrilled I can finally announce my big news: this beauty is mine. Arbor Lane, JoAnn’s 2010 QuiltBlock of the Month quilt design, is mine. My goal for this quilt was for it not to look like a Block of the Month. I wanted to develop a design that had never been done before. I love medallion quilts, but had never made one, let alone design one. Why not? A girl can dream, can’t she? I must admit, the team was skeptical. Designers had tried to fit a medallion quilt into monthly kits before, but it hadn’t ever worked. Too many restrictions on shapes, number of pieces, and a lot of behind-the-scenes details. But I was determined. After all, nothing presents a challenge like hearing “that’s never been done before.”
Here’s are photos of the quilt top in my home, before it went to the longarm quilter to work her magic:
I’ll be sharing the genesis of Arbor Lane with you each day this week. I give you a sneak peek into my design process, unveil thumbnail sketches, alternative color palettes, and designs that ended up on the cutting table and never made it into the quilt. It’s going to be fun week: don’t miss it!
To kick things off in a grand scale, let’s have a contest, shall we? I’ll be giving away a fall color palette of fabric to the lucky quilter who can guess how long it took me to make this quilt. Leave your guess in the comment section and I’ll award the fabric at the end of the week.
One week from the time you finished the design and chose the colors.
Beautiful quilt Maria, I have never done a medallion , they always looked to difficult . I am never good at guessing but maybe two days of sewing all day. Hope you are well , I am so busy these days will be glad when September is over and I can get back to quilting. I won’t be chatting thursday because my Jonah will be sleeping in the room that has the computer in it and he goes to bed at 7:30 so hopefully next week. God Bless Sandra
Oooh, hard question…if I ignore the time you had to devote to other things while you were working on it….calculate the number of times you changed your mind about patterns…hand applique or machine….choosing colors was the fastest part (if you used your book!)…that’s too many questions that I need to answer so I’ll just take a wild guess. My guess is four weeks, start to finish.
I’m guessing six days. And on the seventh day you rested! Congratulations! That really is cool news.
I think it took you 3 full days after design and fabric selection.
8 days including the design process and fabric selection–the quilt is lovely!
Maria, this quilt is stunning! Love your colors, design, the medallion, etc. If (while guessing) I am supposed to include the whole process from design process to completed project, I would think at least 1 1/2 months to 2, maybe even more. You were experimenting with different blocks and layouts and colors, etc., and I would think that would take some time, along with the final collecting of fabrics and all the sewing to complete the top. If, however, you are referring to the basic sewing of the quilt top only (not the long arm quilting), I’d guess maybe a week of on and off sewing. I love this quilt!!! Fantastic!
can anyone vote or do you have eligibility requirements?
based on how I interpeted what you said I would say 1 day.
Anyone Sandi. Just put your thoughts on how long you think it took me to piece and applique the quilt top. Good luck!
Maria, I like this very much. I’ll say it took 4 days. It was good to see you last week.
I would say it took you 4days quilting and all.
I didn’t read all the comments or I would have guessed different than Annette. Can I try again? This time I would guess 5 days. It is lovely, I like the colors.
It’s lovely! After the design and fabric were done I think it took you four days to sew it.
I would have to guess that it took about 60 hours to complete including design and fabric choice. Beautiful Quilt and thanks for the great contest.
Oh yeah, I included the quilting in that.