Still Waters King Quilt - Happy 60th Birthday Kim!

I'm so excited that the cat's out of the bag about a quilt I've been working on for months! My Dad asked me to make a quilt for his lovely wife Kim several months ago for her 60th birthday in December. I was very excited and took on the challenge without a second thought! She received the quilt as a gift at the big party today.

Since I've become a quilt professional Kim has taken a particular interest in quilts - not in making quilts herself, but in looking at, bidding on, and wanting quilts for herself. It got to the point where my Dad started taking snapshots of quilts she loved so he could give me an idea of what she likes.

I know her decor, her favourite colours, and her style, so it was quite fun to create a quilt that she would love. I started to draw up my own designs scanning the internet, old magazines and more to find something that would catch my eye. I had a clear idea that turquoise would be a feature colour.

Then I saw an ad in an old magazine from 2010 and I knew it was a perfect fit. It was the Still Waters pattern designed by Cheryl Malkowski of Cheryl Rose Creations. It just looked like the wave water theme I was aiming for so I called her up and ordered the pattern right away.

The next challenge was to change a smaller rectangular gradated pattern to a king sized square quilt pattern. This proved to be quite a thinker, but possible. I laid it all out on paper and came up with the perfect size. Then it was on to the search for fabric. The magazine ad was so old that the fabric was no longer available from the distributor, but I knew it was Green Tea Tonga Batiks, so the search was on. After a few days I found 2 different online stores that had a few bundles left and put in my order.

Once I had the fabric in my hands it took some creative thinking to get it all organized. I was surprised that I had to trim all of the 10" precuts which kept me up one night until 2am, but then it went together like butter. I love curved piecing so I quilted the nights away. After a few weeks of squeezing in time wherever possible, I had the entire top done with a few extra fabrics added in to make it a king sized topper. 

Thinking well in advance that I'd be hard pressed to quilt a king quilt in good time on my domestic machine, I booked some time in November for my good friend Eileen Zornes to quilt it. With a perfect motif for the wave theme, she did a gorgeous job! 

I also called upon my friend Karen Jeffrey to embroider these little ditties…

Finally I took a few days to get on that picture perfect binding and then wrap it up to ship away to Winnipeg. They had a huge birthday party for her this afternoon and I was able to check in on Skype. She certainly had a teary-eyed thank you. It was a complete surprise and she loved it. Here's a quick snapshot of it on my own bed before I shipped it off.

Happy Birthday Kim! Love you!