CHOP Founders Day

Two in a row - 2 memory quilts that is.

Each year we open our evangelistic season by celebrating Founder's Day with the Church House of Prayer (CHOP) in Oklahoma. Last year a fellow church member suggested we create a memory quilt for presentation this year.

I forgot about it until about a month ago when I was doing the previous memory quilt.  I requested pictures and after 2 weeks I figured I would not get them until after we arrived in Oklahoma.  Six days before I was to leave for Oklahoma I got the pictures.  I should have said I would get it done after we got back but I didn't.

It was 6 days of insane stress but by God's grace I got it done.

How I Did It

I am happy to say everything came from my stash - ya.  I was determined not to buy anything for this project.  Except for Sunday all work was done starting in the evening after I got off work.

Day 1 (Sunday)

• I got the pictures that afternoon but did not have time to do much.
• I prepared my fabric for printing the pictures by cutting my fabric into 8.5" x 11" pieces and soaking them in Bubble Jet Set 2000.  I allowed the pieces to dry for 24 hours.

Day 2 (Monday)

• I reviewed all pictures and decided which ones I would use for the memorial.

Day 3 (Tuesday)

• I reviewed information I received with pictures and decided on the sayings and words I would embroider.  I created the embroidery in my Hatch embroidery software.

Day 4 (Wednesday)

• I cut squares about 8" knowing that I would trim them down to a 6.5" square.  Next I stitched out the designs and cut the 8" square down to 6.5"

Her Essence

Her Relationships

Her Favorite Scripture

Sayings She was Known for

Day 5 (Thursday)

• I printed my pictures by ironing my prepared 8.5" x 11" pieces onto a piece a ink jet printable freezer paper.  I used Word to place and print my pictures.
• I cut out the individual pictures and applied Heat Bond to the back of each picture. 
• I cut squares of fabric about 8" and pressed the individual pictures onto the squares.  Then I used a decorative stitch to cover any printed cut lines and "white" space.
• I cut the squares down to 6.5" and afterwards I cut and added a 1 1/2" border around each square with the finished border being 1".

Fabric Prepped for Printing

Prepped Fabric Ironed onto Freezer Paper

Day 6/7 (Friday & Saturday)

• I decided the 1 1/2" border would make the memorial too big.  I knew my church was going to have it framed and the bigger the memorial the higher the cost of framing.  I decided a 1/2" finished border was better so I cut the "picture" border down so the finished border would be 1/2".
• I cut and added 1/2" frame around the "word" squares.
• I stitched the rows together.
• Then I remembered I had more embroidery to do.  I believe I cut 3 1/2" horizontal strips and 2" vertical strips.  I embroidered on the 3 1/2" strips and added all the strips to the memorial to create a final border.
• I cut batting and backing for the memorial and stitched in the ditch with a Sulky 30wt Cotton Blendable thread.  I forgot to take a picture of the back.
• I cut 2 1/2" strips for the binding and attached the binding.  I stitched in the ditch using a decorative stitch and a Sulky 30wt Cotton Blendable thread.
• Why put Day 6 and 7 together?  Because I did not sleep between these days.  I started Friday evening after work.  Friday turned into Saturday and I honestly did not think I would finish it.  Because I was suffering from sleep deprivation things that I do all the time in a small amount of time took about 4 times as long to do.  I had about 40 minutes after completing the memorial to bathe, get dress, and pack before I had to leave.

Conclusion

This project was brutal only because of my lack of time.  Saturday morning I was completely exhausted and just about in tears because I too tired to figure things out.

Understand quilting type projects are something I do quite often but because I was exhausted things just kept going wrong and took much longer than normal complete.  I wasn't able to fix minor errors but most people either don't notice them or they just ignore them.

What's Next

I thought I had completed the robe (view A) for McCalls 6659 but as I was getting a picture of the pattern envelope I realized something did not look right on my robe.  I reviewed the instructions and learned I had done something wrong.  Now it makes since why I was having such a hard time with the facing band.  I will fix the error and post it.

My other project waiting in the queue is Lekala 4748.

Lekala 4748