Row by Row REVEAL

I want to start by thanking ALL my followers - you know who you are!  I met a couple of people yesterday - well people came up to me and said "I follow your blog".  That is so awesome and it makes me very happy knowing that I put a smile on someone's face as they read about the craziness that is called my day to day.

It was an insane day yesterday, and I did start a post and then well - I got waylaid and so the post never happened.  I'll leave that for another day.

Let's just say that the binding got completed on my Row by Row quilt.  That happened on Monday night despite the fact that I had to add in the missing section (thankfully I was able to get the SAME color grey). The sleeve got stitched on before dropping the quilt off at the show and all is good!  I even made a label, but when I went to sew it on, do you think I could find the darn thing?  Nope - well after seeing this quilt, there is NO other like it!

Are you ready?   My Row by Row License Plate quilt is currently hanging in the Invitational section at Quilt Canada 2016.  I'm pretty excited about that.  Over the course of 2014, I participated in Row by Row and got almost all the Ontario license plates. I think there were 28 or 29 that year. The rest of the plates came from various states in the US.  Last year with the trading frenzy, I ended up with a few from 2014 as well making a total of 55 license plates.

2014 Row by Row License Plates

 The big question then was what to do with the plates.  I wanted to use them all in one quilt but not have something huge.  I think from day one, I wanted to write a story using the license plates.  I even took my plates to PEI with me last year and I had them laid out on the floor, arranging, writing, rearranging. Thankfully I did NOT sew the quilt together at that time.  As I got more plates, I rearranged the story one more time and finally, I called it a wrap.  No more plates from 2014!

I used my embroidery machine to do the lettering.  No wait - first I had to load the embroidery software which was a pain because my laptop is too old to be compatible.  Got that problem fixed.  Then I downloaded a trufont from the internet and converted it to an embroidery design using the software. I chose a font that was very similiar to the style of writing on the license plates. Then I simply sat down over a couple of days and hooped some fabrics with NO regard of what color I was using where - totally random.  I used a total of 12 solids and tried to match the colors to the license plates and the coordinating prints from Row by Row 2014.

Some of the solids used in the Row by Row quilt

In progress - it looked like a circus tent in my studio!

I was using my own embroidery machine for the stitching and while the embroidery was taking place, I was sewing on the Designer EPIC.  Gosh - I love this machine!!!    You can always check out the QUILTSocial blog for the review.  I'll repost the link - I don't have time to get it this morning.

Two sewing machines going

Once that was done, I had it all laid out on my design wall.

Starting the layout process

All the words are now embroidered

And then the process of sewing it together.  I was restricted by the size that I had given the Quilt Canada organizers.  I did go a smidgen longer, but I literally went on a leap of faith (as usual) to get the sizing. But each row had to be exactly 45 1/2" wide so a bit of juggling had to be done on each row.

There were 18 plates left over from that center part.  I could have worked them into the story, but it would have made the quilt much larger.  When I laid them on the wall and put that grey up there, it reminded me of a road which makes sense since I did a lot of miles to collect the plates. It was perfect and I think the two grey borders frame the quilt nicely.

Once Upon a Row by Row

Hopefully, you can click on the quilt to enlarge it so you can read the story.  And those who know me best or read my blog, will get the entire story.  Some parts may be lost to those that don't. So if you want clarification, I can do that, but it's pretty clear.

Yes, while all the other quilts in the invitational show are serious, beautiful pieces, there is my quilt - full of humor and fun!!   Well - it's all about ME and it's all about having fun!  More importantly, it's all about having a guilt free 2016 Row by Row experience!!!!

Hope to see you at Quilt Canada. I'll be there teaching the next two days and back on Saturday to float around.  If you can, I would highly encourage you to come.  While this is a juried and judged show, it doesn't mean the pieces are beyond us.  No - everyone I know is CAPABLE of having a quilt in that show. But if you bring your camera, there is amazing quilting designs to take pictures of.  There are incredible learning opportunities - color, composition, styles, loads.  And there is also a show by the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild, the Trend-Tex challenge and another show which is AMAZING!!!!!   Let's not forget the vendors.


I had the most amazing and perfect dinner companion last night which I'll tell you about later.

Have a great day!!!!!

Ciao!!!!!