Project Quilting 10.5 – Abecedarian

Unlike the last few challenges, this week I knew almost immediately what I wanted to do for the Project Quilting challenge.  For about 15 minutes, I wasn’t too thrilled about the topic because all I could think of was appliqued letters on something.  Sure, some kind of cute saying would be nice to hang in my sewing room, but I just didn’t have any enthusiasm about that. 

Then it hit me!  I have been saving novelty fabrics in order to make an I-Spy quilt for my grandson.  I figured that I could make the quilt with a block for each letter of the alphabet.  There wouldn’t be any actual letters on the quilt, but since each block would represent a letter, it would be suitable for the challenge.

I could have completed an I-Spy quilt quite a while ago, but I was unhappy with the letter J.   Honestly, there are not too many fabrics out there that show something that starts with J.  I thought that I might be able to find jelly beans, jets or jacks, but after looking for over a year, I gave up.  The only ‘J’ fabric that I found featured jalapeno peppers.  I wasn’t sure that a four-year-old who is just learning to read would get the connection or if it would confuse him   So, the fabrics have been sitting there patiently waiting for me to find a better J fabric. But when this challenge was posted, I decided that the jalapeno pepper fabric would be a learning experience for him!

I browsed around the web and Pinterest looking for ideas.  I found a pattern that had been published in Quiltmaker Magazine several years ago which looked promising.   It called for 49 charm squares bordered with solids and set 7 x 7.   I immediately decided that I could use two of each of my alphabet fabrics and make it not only an I-Spy quilt, but a ‘find the match’ quilt.  Since 2 of each alphabet fabric makes 52 blocks, I added four blank squares. Setting them 7 x 8 made a nice 42" x 48" quilt.  Voila, pattern decided on and all the fabrics were already in my stash and it was only Monday!

I wasn’t sure that I could finish a quilt in a  week, especially this week, but decided to  give it a try.  Some weeks, there is  nothing extra going on, but this week is one of those that are extra challenging, time-wise.  I belong to a concert chorale and this coming weekend is concert weekend.  We have a concert Saturday night and one on Sunday afternoon. We also have 2 extra rehearsals during the week in addition to the regular Tuesday evening rehearsal.  Lent starts this week, and with it the Fish Fry fundraisers that our church holds on Ash Wednesday and every Friday in Lent.  I’ve been volunteering there for the last few years, so I didn’t want to tell them no.  My rowing club’s quarterly member meeting falls this week.  The quilt guild has small groups that meet on the second Saturday of the month – yep, this week! Oh, and we lose an hour on Sunday morning due to daylight savings time starting. 

   

My Abecedarian-I-Spy-Find-The-Match Quilt 42"X48"

But in spite of all the other commitments,  I actually finished it early! I worked on it every spare minute and am posting this on Friday afternoon. Which means that I have time to go over the concert music and work on those rough spots before tonight’s dress rehearsal.  Win, win!