Summer Days (Daze) A Finish!

And. . . the name of this quilt got hit by??  my menopausal melon. . . sigh.

The pattern is called "Summer Daze" and I blogged about it already here.  I loved the name; I adored the display quilt in Guildcrafters Quilt Shop.  Well, as I was writing on my label, getting it ready to sew into the backing (those of you who have read my blog know that's what I pretty much always do), this is what I wrote:

Summer Daze

Woot! Woot!  Another finish!  I finished this last night but I wanted to get a daylight picture.

By the way, it's the top only that's finished; I will quilt this happy quilt on my longarm.  Think I might do this one first, as I plan to do a gentle all-over meander which is nice and easy, so a good way to get back in the swing of quilting on a longarm.

These colours are just so not-in-my-stash, but I absolutely ADORE them, and this quilt has that graduating or stepping action in the pattern, which I just love.  Your eye just travels over the quilt, eating it up, like you lick a fast-melting ice cream.

Here is the original December picture.  Even rolled as they were, those colours just call to me, singing of summertime.  I got this pattern and kit from Guildcrafters Quilt Shop in Berkley, Michigan.

Someone else LOVED the new fabric.  Honestly, she DOES!  Every time I get new fabric which is not rather often, or start a new project, Bella just HAS to get her 2 cents' worth of fur on it.

Purring mightily away, scrabbling a bit on the pattern sheet. . . mmm!  Nice scratchy sound.

This was a cool way of constructing, similar but a little different to that in a Trip Around the World quilt.  You sewed strips of fabric together, making two strata, 17 strips long by 44" wide.

Bella wanted to be in the picture to check out the front balcony!

Then you cut the strata apart in 4" strips.  Here you see my strips all cut.  The sun shining through an ornament made a pretty pattern on the wall and floor, no?  (It's not dog snot, just so you know.)

You then sewed all the strips into one gi-normous long strip of 340 squares!  Once that was done, you undid a seam every 21 squares, with a few squares discarded here and there (4 in all) to create each column.

What I thought was cool (and thank you to whoever did the math to figure out the repeat pattern) was that the columns were not in order.  You got Column 1, 5, 9 and 13 off the first four 21-square repeats.  Then the pattern system was established.  Too smart!!

I do see why people pay for patterns rather than spend the hours figuring out the math or system for quilts like this.  I read somewhere that a quilter wondered who would pay for her pattern, but yes, there are people who do not want to spend that kind of time figuring.  They would rather get right to the cutting and sewing stage, so will happily pay to skip the figuring part.

Here it is on the design wall, waiting to have the columns sewn together.

Quilt Details:
Name:  Summer Daze
Size:  56 X 70"
Pattern: designed by Guildcrafters Quilt Shop
Fabric:  100% cotton, several from Dear Stella Fabrics

Happy

I am.

Okay, it seems kind of, "oh barf," but I just am so happy.  I realized today that this is the feeling that I used to get on summer vacation:  time stretching seemingly endlessly into the future, no routine, no commitments, no worries, no stress.  And I have it - always.  Year round.  Ahhh.

I shut off the light last night, laid my head down on the pillow, looked out the window at the palm tree softly bobbing in the night (we keep one blind open, the other shut, so the first thing I see when I open my eyes is that palm tree) and was filled with a warm, flowing sense of contentment and pure happiness.  I felt like my skin was melting, kind of the consistency of Bodyshop's body butter; I was glowing like a firefly.  We so often scoff at our mental and emotional and psychological and spiritual feelings manifesting in our flesh, but haven't you been filled with a glow of happiness?  Felt your heart constrict in hurt, or anxiety? There you go.

Braden River