Sooper Sekrit Quilt Revealed!

I haven't gotten a lot done quilt-wise this year, thanks to the little one, but I did have one particularly exciting quilting-related event occur - namely, I had been squirreling a quilt away to give as a gift for the right occasion, and this Christmas the right occasion came up!

My Mother in Law is a crazy Wizard of Oz fan, and you may Remember Some Pillows I've made for her in the past. But although the pillows started out as the main feature, eventually I ended up with some, shall we say, "extra blocks" that came with the panels. Like so:

My husband was very sporting about helping me collect all 7 panels, at which point I had pretty much the whole story, in "movie reel" blocks, so the only logical thing to do was make a lap quilt. Which... may have grown a little bit as I designed it.




Here I am with it at my first-ever quilt show, where I entered it "for display only" last summer.

Yup, the finished quilt is over 6 feet tall. it's not quite wide enough to be a queen sized quilt, but it is definitely more than tall enough - I need to stand on a chair to hold it up and I'm 5'7" (and at least 6 inches taller than my poor MIL, who will probably need a second person to fold the thing). And on the front, it tells the whole story from start to finish, with some fun scenics in between, since just putting all those movie reels together got WAY busy-looking, way fast. The sides are Dorothy's iconic red shoes, and a poppy print from the collection.

I also decided to "save money" by quilting the back entirely from scraps, and ended up VERY pleased with the result.  It was a great way to show off some of the more oddly sized scenics, and the stained glass effect is fun from a distance. I think the back actually took longer to piece than the front, since there were more spacing issues to work out. Unfortunately this photo was taken before I put the dedication on, but I also quilted a handmade label telling my MIL who the quilt was for and when it was made.

Although I worked on it from Jan-May of 2011, I presented the quilt to my MIL this past Christmas because we were going to be there in person. And as often happens when we get swept up in the moment, I totally forgot to take ANY pictures of her with it - ah well, maybe that's for the next trip, when she has it hanging up in her house.

In the meantime, here's another family member enjoying the bright colors at the quilt show, and a detail of the quilt. With her mom's taste in clothes, she blends right in!