Saturday, June 29, 2019

Beware the Ishmaelites: Moda Modern Building Blocks, Resized for Anders (Again)

It has been a busy couple of weeks, filled with a last-minute beach getaway to Kiawah, SC, my husband's trans esophageal echocardiogram (90% good news from that), and then racing off with Lars for New Students & Parents Orientation at Appalachian State University. Somewhere in the midst of all of that our dishwasher died and the kitchen ceiling fan came crashing down from the vaulted ceiling and smashed on the floor within a foot or two of my astonished husband, like the climax of The Phantom of the Opera.  I am just beginning to dig my way out of accumulated mail, laundry, dirty dishes, and other debris.  

But I did remember to measure Anders' Queen platform bed so I could tinker around with resizing his Moda Modern Building Blocks sampler quilt:

Beware the Ishmaelites, Moda Modern Building Blocks Resized to 94 x 104
The Queen mattress measures 60" x 80", but I don't need an extra long drop because of the platform bed style.  I decided I can live with a 10-12" drop on the sides, and more like 16" on the bottom (I like a quilt to really wrap around the bottom of the kids' beds; it helps the quilt to stay ON the bed rather than ending up on the floor in the morning).  Then I factored in a 10% shrinkage rate, because I plan to enjoy myself custom quilting this sampler and I know that the more densely I quilt it, the smaller it will end up.  I was able to keep the center of the quilt the same size (the wonky 70" x 80" size I resized it to a couple years ago, NOT the original size from the FREE Moda pattern), and got the additional width from the borders.  Before quilting, my top should measure 94" x 104", and that should yield a nice size even after I quilt the dickens out of it and run it through the wash.

Original 84 x 96 Moda Modern Quilt Blocks Quilt As Shown at Quilt Market in 2014
This is the original Moda Modern Building Blocks sampler, a free pattern from 2014.  My version uses Kona Solids instead of Moda fabrics because I don't have a swatch card for Moda and I wanted to match the colors of this wallpaper:

Wallpaper in Anders' Bathroom, Colors Matched to New Quilt
This is an old photo from right after the wallpaper was installed, but I STILL love the wallpaper and I think it works well for a teenager.  This vanity area is open to his bedroom, and when we updated the space for him last summer I swapped out the green cabinet knobs for contemporary brushed nickel knobs and I painted the adjacent bedroom walls the same off white color that you see in the wallpaper.  I've matched the exact shades of red, golden yellow, blue, and green to Kona Solid fabrics and incorporated those shades into his quilt, and I've made just this one block so far:

First and Only Block Completed, 30 inches square
I bought all of the fabrics Way Back When, but I'll probably need to purchase additional yardage for the new side borders that I've added.  Anyway, now that I know it's going to fit his bed again, I can get back to making the blocks.  Most of the blocks in this quilt will be either foundation paper pieced or pieced the old fashioned way, with templates, because when I resized the quilt the first time I strayed from "ruler friendly" block measurements.

Oh, and why am I calling this one Beware the Ishmaelites, you may ask?  Years ago, when my boys were MUCH younger, they were in a vacation Bible school play about Joseph -- the Joseph who is the favorite younger son, and his mother makes him an amazing coat of many colors, and his older brothers are jealous so they sell him into slavery to the Ishmaelites and tell their parents that Joseph was mauled by a wild animal.  In the play, my oldest son Lars played the part of Joseph and my younger son Anders was the brother who sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites!  But in real life Anders is the younger brother, and as you can see, his quilt has MANY more colors than his older brother's quilt does...  Also, Anders' old quilt, the one that I made for him when he was three years old and had a frog infatuation, was called Anders' Froggy Quilt of Many Colors:

Anders' Froggy Quilt of Many Colors, 2006
Funny story about this quilt, one of the very first ones I ever made: Originally the whole quilt was supposed to be flying geese, but I struggled so much to get the triangle points just right and spent so much time ripping out stitches and redoing them, that I finally had to just add a giant border of strips in order to get it to a size that would fit the bed.  And I cringe now when I look at this jumble of too many prints and colors, but at the time, little dude was digging those froggy prints and that was all that mattered!

And so, the Moda Modern Building Blocks sampler becomes Beware the Ishmaelites in this version, for my no-longer-little Joseph Anders.

7 comments:

SJSM said...

What a week you have had! All the drama, the get away and now the piles of laundry. It’s good that hubby has a 90% good review with the doctors. Hopefully that 10% is an area he will improve or at a minimum work with to cause little lifestyle issues. I love the story of the two quilts, froggy being loved and your dedication to getting it done. Then the Moda quilt you have planned. It all works together as a story for Anders.

Aside from scaring your husband, did the falling fan damage the floor or anything? With my luck it would have taken a chunk out of the counter, dug a hole in the floor and thrown debris into the next room which would have hit the TV and shattered it as well as put a big hole in the wall. Bad enough having to replace the dishwasher now you get to replace the fan and soothe hubby’s nerves. I’m glad he was only a witness to the damage.

Please, have a dull and boring week! You need the rest.

Lakegaldonna said...

Oh boy has it ever been a full week for you! Yikes!
It's so nice that you could sneak away to the beach with all of that going on.

Good to hear that Bernie's test was pretty good. (Beware of ceiling fans)

I like the new resized quilt for Anders and the block that is done. That quilt should be a very fun one to make. You won't get bored with all the various blocks in the many colors.

Kate said...

Wow is when it rains it pours at your place! Hope you and Your Guy are well on your way to having all the repairs at least planned, if not in progress. Love both of Ander's quilts. I'm not sure there is too bright and bold when they are little. I let mine pick the colors for one of her quilts when she was about 8, which turned out to include two shades of bright pink, bright orange and electric green. She still treasures that eye-searing quilt. Good luck with Ander's quilt.

chrisknits said...

What a sweet story!! I guess you should be glad your son didn't get sold!! Love the mash up of colors and prints in froggy!

Ramona said...

I sure hope this week is much calmer for you! I love your story of how this new quilt was named. Your color choices really pop... much more than the original. It's so fun looking back at our early quilting days and seeing what we have learned along the way.

dq said...

Joseph's story in the Bible is my favorite! The word "Ishmaelites" is what sparked my interest to read this post just as much as the beautiful quilt. I recently attended a church youth conference where I was a "ma" with my husband the "pa" of a family of youth from our community, and we were the city of Ishmael.

Happy sewing!

The Joyful Quilter said...

I actually LOVE Ander's froggy quilt. Too many colors? I think NOT!!!