Friday Finish - C'est fini! Un cadeau pour une amie!

 

And here it is! The much blogged about retirement present for Mme SS! Mme SS was an wonderful mentor to me over the eleven years we worked together. I'll never forget the adventures (and great meals) we had on our annual chaperoning gigs to Québec City, nor the extraordinary kindness she has always shown to me and Himself.  Though we taught in different buildings and saw each other infrequently, I always knew she was there for me - whether it was to listen to me vent or to cheer me on with some crazy idea I had for my classroom. To say that I missed her last year at school would be an understatement. It's just not quite the same without her... not that I thought it would be.

This is the second project I've made from The Modern Quilting Bee: Block Party. I've fallen in love with improv piecing. I just feel so creative when I'm doing it. And I don't have to worry about putting things together "wrong" or not having a perfect 1/4 inch seam. Just sayin'...

I also fell in love with these fabrics, even though I'd not normally choose something with so much floral. They're from Amanda Murphy's Bonjour Mon Amie ... even the name of the fabric suits! The colours were just so good together.... and Mme S-S thought they were perfect! Of course, I had to slip in a little bit of Kona - Coral, Green Tea, and Chocolate!

I'm happy to say that this quilt has finally made its way home... it was actually finished in the summer of 2013. Shocking! Mme S-S came over this week with a fun hand-made present for DT and I sent her home with one of her own!

I knew that if I didn't use up as much of this fabric as I could, I'd end up "saving it for something good." To combat my pack-rat/sentimental tendencies, I decided on a pieced back. It uses up lots of bits! The idea was to mimic the wonky stripe block.

For the quilting, I went all out! The goal was to emphasize the vertical-ness (if that's even a word) of the individual blocks. I stitched in the ditch on the edge of each of the pieced sections and continued that line of stitching to the top and the bottom of the quilt. The spacing between the vertical lines of stitching varies greatly - from a quarter inch to a few inches.

 

A little local colour for you... bits of this building are just incredible!

Merci mille fois, mon amie. Tu me manques et tu me manqueras!
The Deets

Title: Mme S-S's Wonky Retirement

Fabric Used: Various prints from Amanda Murphy's Bonjour Mon Ami line including Grand Dame in Brown, En Bruns in Brown, Trellis in Turquoise, Bijou in Green, & Jeune Fleur in Blue

Konas Used: Green Tea, Coral, & Chocolate
Quilting: Straight line vertical using Gutterman White (Colour - 20)

Binding:  Bijou in Green, Hand stitched with Gutterman 
Backing: Majority of back is Grand Dame in Brown 
Favourite Part(s): Improv piecing, making a pieced back that mimics the blocks on the front

I'm linking up with Finish Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts, as well as TGIFF hosted by Val's Quilting Studio this week.
Hope you're finishing up some of those New Year's Resolution quilts... we're just 16 days into the new year! Don't tell me you've forgotten about them already! ☺

J