Tuesday, January 11, 2011

First Finish for Student Letters

I finished the Student Letters quilt yesterday. Woohoo. It's actually the first finish - I got the top done (click to make bigger):


Terrible photo (too dark), but a fantastic quilt. Here's a photo from across the room to get a better idea of size - 58" x 70"


Yep, that's my sewing area where the dining room would normally be. Don't you like my classy chandelier?  ;-)

I added two more rows to the quilt than I originally intended to. It just seemed to need it AND I used up all the individual letters that ya'all sent me except for two. How about that. I could have fit them in, but decided to include a block from me. I wanted to include some of my love in this quilt.

I like Dub on its side and how it curves up and in to the quilt, kind of leads your eye in, at least that's how I see it.

Baby and Clank (it actually looks like "clgnk" which is why it ended up in this quilt rather than Slither Eek Boo) were dominating when they had all their background fabric on them. But having them oversized allowed me to cut them down to the size I needed. Along with the new "boo" block in the lower left corner, I think they help balance out the big pink Hope block.

I didn't put much of a border on this quilt. It's surrounded by beige that will finish off at approximately 1 or 1.5 inches. Some of the letters were too close to the edge and I don't want them lost when I go to cut off the edges and put on the binding.

(never mind this bit - the quilt now has a name) How about a name for this quilt? It's had alternate names as I've pieced it (besides the boring explanatory Student Letters 2005-2010).

Slither 2: The Revenge of Christmas
Slither Merry Christmas
Slither Baby (sung to the tune of Eartha Kitt's immortal Santa Baby)
Purple Orange Baby - which was all I could see when those words were all grouped together
Baby Clank - the most recent name. (sung to the tune of The Supremes Baby Love)

the only problem with the Slither options is that I use just the first word to refer to the quilt and Slither will always be Eek Boo...  I could always spell out Slither Baby - unless that's too confusing. I'm avoiding the word "Hope" because I already have a few quilts of my own with that title (and that does confuse me!)

I'm sure there's a fun name I haven't thought of at all.

Wheee - we have a winner. I love Forest Jane's suggestion of  *drum roll*  Alphablitzen
Love that name for this quilt. Woohoo!

Oh, and the two leftover letters? They're in the drawer waiting for more UnRuly letters and words to join them. You know me, I LOVE playing with these. The next quilt of orphans will look completely different when all ya all send more letters and blocks. That includes any newbies who might be reading this. I'd love your experiments and the letters that just didn't work out the way you wanted them to...

Of course you can keep your own letters (if you have to) and make an orphan quilt of your own. Look at how fabulous all of Lynne's UnRuly letters and orphans are - Julie is going to piece them together  for her and it's going to be a wonderful. These kinds of quilts are such a great peek at your own history of work. Looking through Lynne's leftovers and trial blocks I see some bits from Daft Zebras and how she worked on Chocolate for the 9 x 9 color quilt and I could go on...

Now everyone who has a block in here needs to come to my house and sign the quilt. How about tomorrow?

33 comments:

Heidi said...

how about June ? ;-)

AnnieO said...

Looks like a Student Smorgasbord to me! I only have one letter and a couple of dots, so just sign my initials, LOL.

Pretty terrific quilt, so much to stop and study over. Fun, fun fun.

shannon said...

you could call it doggie bag...cause it's leftovers...

i love your book BTW...i have a quote and now i just need to start!

thanks! shannon

Brenda said...

what time is good? I'm happy to miss my 9 a.m. dental cleaning. sorry, I guess I can't come over to personally sign it, but I see lots of my letters in that. I don't have a name for you, but maybe something without slither.

Twisted Quilts said...

Looks great, I am not good at naming quilts. How about Grab Bag?

ForestJane said...

Blitzen is pretty prominent, how about "Alphablitzen" for a name?

Sujata Shah said...

Wow! This quilt looks great!
I too need to get going on this soon!

Tonya Ricucci said...

Forest Jane got it. Love it.The quilt is now Alphablitzen!

Em said...

Turned out fab and love the name!!!! Can't wait to work on a word tonight!

deborah said...

Perfect name for a great quilt! I'm working on my very first letters- it is so much fun!

Kristin L said...

That looks awesome! Will it get any sort of border? Something margarita-ish or piano keys?

I have some bug fabric and will make a "bah" if I can get a few other things off my plate.

Kristin Shields said...

Looks fabulous and that's a perfect name! What fun!

Nifty Quilts said...

Great quilt! Who woulda thunk it? You're courageous to take this on. Good fun to see.

Jennifer D said...

I love that name! It is perfect.

Your "Alphablitzen" is fabulous Tonya. See how many people you've got breaking the rules?!

YankeeQuilter said...

Great name!

joe tulips said...

The great mystery for me has been solved! Every time I saw this I wondered what is cignk....now it makes sense! This looks so cool and it's spiffy new name is perfect.

Anonymous said...

The quilt is beautiful, fresh, exciting and joyous! It makes me smile.

Carla said...

Love, love, LOVE this quilt!! Wonderful name too!

Rosalyn Manesse said...

what a great quilt, good job assembling it, too

Sharon said...

What a fun quilt! It must have been *fun* getting it all together. Love the name for it - it's perfect! I see my letters in there. It's great to see your mojo at work again!

Millie said...

LOVE the quilt! The name is terrific, and given the fact there is about 8" of snow on the ground at my house right now... I'll be thrilled to go to Florida to sign the quilt!

Kim said...

Okay you could of just called it
"MY BABY" ummmmm wait could I be
biased? I now see why giving you extra fabric around the letters is a MUST. Love this creation and have started one of my own :0)!

Forest Jane has the best
imagination...did I tell you Jane and I are now "Scrap Squad" buddies with Quiltmaker Mag.?

Happy Sewing

Brigitte said...

Dear Tonya,
love the Alphablitzen!!! and the sewing studio in the formerly dining room.
Today your book arrived here in Southern Germany,
it’s just fabulous!!!!!!!!!!!
The only thing I’m missing are pictures of Pokey and the furry gang
Such great examples from you and others
I do have an unusual Halloween Round Robin from a Dear Jane group,
that needs one more border (on just one side)
that’s asking for some words in the very near future

THANK YOU for this great book

Quilty hugs
Brigitte Baierl
My taupe DJ 23-0-0-208
http://beadtex.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

LOVE it! The name is purrrfect!!!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR BOOK! The timing was greatly synchronistic. I just posted a picture of my word play quilt on my blog. Check it out! kwiltzbystephanie.blogspot.com

Marit said...

This is a great puzzle and a fabulous quilt, Tonya!!!
; )

Clare said...

I spy with my little eye an a, an H and a T!

This quilt is wonderful. So full of life and I love the name.

Gorgeous sewing area - so full of light.

ssmith said...

Just thought I'd let you know...I know how much you love Halloween fabrics and Michael Miller just came out with some fabrics that I saw and thought of you! Those skulls are amazing and they look like day of the dead stuff! It's worth a look! http://makingitfun.blogspot.com/

Jenka said...

The name is PERFECT! Love your quilts and your book (I just got it!). I am looking forward to figuring out how to free-piece letters.
We are big Pokey fans at my house! I also have a cat with kidney problems... labs were NORMAL last time!!!

Anonymous said...

What a great quilt! and a very cool sewing area - right in the hub of it all!

Tanya said...

Hi Tonya. I'd love to come over but I have to work today... Um... I have a humbug for you. And maybe another one in progress. I guess I'd like to post it on your Unruly Letters blog so how do I sign in?

Lynda said...

Looks like it was totally planned!

Beginning Quilting said...

I totally loved your student letters quilt. :) It's fun and interesting! Alphablitzen is absolutely the perfect name for it! Keep on creating beautiful quilts and keep on inspiring many quilters out there!

journeyseeds said...

i love the word quilt...very cool.