Only Nine

Our mom's family holds a reunion every Summer.  In addition to talking, playing, eating, and debating, we also have a family auction.  Every item auctioned is donated by a member of the family and the proceeds pay for future reunions and family history work.  We usually have an eclectic mix of afghans, quilts, fresh-baked bread, homemade jam, etc.  It's honestly one of my favorite traditions.

A few years ago we also started including service in our auctions - things ranging from handyman hours, to web/computer services, to cleaning and organizing help, to cooking lessons.  It was seriously so much fun and added a greater dimension to the things offered in the auction.

Last Summer, Steph and I didn't take anything to donate to the auction.  We hadn't really thought about it until it was too late to realistically get something made in time.  It's not a requirement to donate, but we enjoy it and we felt bad that we didn't have something to contribute.  

In a moment of craziness, I turned to Steph and said "Let's offer to make a quilt!  The buyer can choose the fabric and pattern and we'll make it for them."  She loved that idea, so we slipped a note to the auctioneer (one of my uncles) and waited.

The winning bid was from my aunt, Georgie, and she was so excited.  After the reunion, she emailed a few quilt pictures that she liked.  There was one similarity in all of them.... curves! We also asked her to pick out a main fabric that she wanted us to use.  She chose: Patricia Bravo for Art Gallery, Paradise Double Bloom in Taupe.  

We considered several different ideas and browsed lots of different quilt patterns for inspiration.  We both really liked one called Only Nine.  We bought the pattern and the templates and went shopping for fabric (our very favorite part!)  Georgie wanted us to focus on blue, pink, and purple, but didn't mind if we used other colors as well. We bought most of the fabric locally and then didn't touch it for a couple months. To be honest, her fabric choice did not inspire me at all.  I mean, I didn't dislike the fabric, I just struggled to get excited about it. 

We finally got around to it, pulled out the fabric, and realized that the quilt store had cut all the fabric incorrectly (shorted us 1-3 inches per piece).  I was mad.  We did our best to track down the needed fabrics and swore to not go back to that fabric store ever again (which we didn't stick to, but have recommitted ourselves to avoid because they are just lousy).

Steph did most of the work on this one.  If I'm not inspired by a project, I just can't get into it.  She wasn't inspired either, but she soldiered on anyway.  Finally, when the top of the quilt was coming together, we both started to actually like the quilt.  A lot.

The colors and patterns worked so well together (the green reads MUCH more lime in these photos) and Steph quilted it using a multi-stitch zig zag.  I actually did help... particularly with the binding.  I like preparing the binding and hand sewing it to the quilt.

Most importantly, Georgie loved it.