Stay at Home - A Finished Quilt!

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

My community's stay at home order is over! We are now free to move about the county! 


Stay at Home quilt

I am so excited to share my finished Stay at Home quilt with you!



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I created the FREE Stay at Home quilt block pattern back in March. (You can get the free pattern HERE!) I wanted a way to remember this unique time in history where millions of people around the world were staying at home in order to stay healthy. The block is a simple house with a heart inside and extra sashing around the house. This illustrates the feeling of love and connection within our family during this time, and also the physical separation from others.

I cut all of my pieces from solid colored scraps leftover from this quilt, and I cut all of my background from a bolt of Kona White that I always have on hand. The colored fabrics are all Painter's Palette solids by Paintbrush Studio Fabrics.


Painter's Palette solids


I made one block for each day that my community was under a mandated stay-at-home order (shelter in place). For us, that was 41 days. I know many communities that are closer to 90 days!

Stay at Home quilt blocks

Be sure to check out #stayathomequilt on Instagram to see some other amazing quilts people are making! Many are using fabric scraps from making masks! Some people made just one block to remember this time, and others have made dozens of blocks!


41 Stay at Home blocks to represent 41 days


Since 41 doesn't make a very nice number of blocks for a quilt top, I added one plain 8 1/2" x 10 1/2" rectangle to be able to use a 6 x 7 block arrangement. This made a 48" x 70" throw quilt. (If you have more blocks than I did, 72 blocks arranged 9 across and 8 down makes a twin-sized 72" x 90" quilt.)


Finished Stay at Home quilt top loaded on my longarm


Once my quilt top was finished, I loaded it on the longarm with a white and gray swirl wide backing fabric that I have a bolt of (I wasn't determined to only use fabric and supplies I had for this project!) and Warm & Natural batting (another thing I keep a bolt of!). 


Finished Stay at Home quilt top loaded on my longarm


I found lots of choices for quilting!

Urban Elementz released three new paper, digital, and self-print pantographs including toilet paper, masks, and molecules!


toilet paper pantographface mask pantographmolecule/virus/covid pantograph

And Pro-Stitcher designed several digital pantographs that they are offering for FREE that are directly based on the Stay at Home block! Find links to all of those HERE!


Stay at Home pantographStay at Home pantographStay at Home pantograph

My longarm is a 1989 Gammill. I know it's limitations, and I know what it's good at. I decided that some free-motion hearts would give me the best results! And I left that one plain white block unquilted.


Free motion heart quilting


I had pieced all of the blocks using 50wt Aurifil #2605 Grey, as that's what I'm using to sew all my masks, and I sewed blocks in-between sewing masks! For quilting, I chose 40wt Aurifil #2024 White so that it would blend into the background fabric.

I took the quilt off the longarm, then switched my domestic to 50wt Aurifil #2024 White. Starting with my air erasable pen, I drew a Stay at Home block in the empty white block. Then using my walking foot, I quilted the outline of the shapes to create a "ghost" block. I switched to my free-motion foot, and quilted the words "Stay at home 2020" into the center of the heart.


Stay at Home 2020 quilt label


Isn't that binding the perfect thing to bring the whole quilt together?! This stripe fabric is from Ampersand Studio's Over the Rainbow collection, and it was the inspiration for the whole color palette!


Striped binding


Of course I machine sewed it on! (Tutorial for that HERE.)


Machine sewing binding


Since the quilt was made based on the stay-at-home order, I knew the final photos needed to be taken at home. My husband was a great sport and climbed on the roof of our two story house for a photo shoot!

At home photo shoot


Totally worth it!


Stay at Home quilt


Find the FREE Stay at Home block pattern HERE. Please let me know if you make one! I'd love to see your quilt!


Linking up with TGIFF.

10 comments:

  1. SO impressed! You did the blocks, you made it through quarantine, your binding is perfect and hubby is on the roof for the photo! Such great news you are free, although all indications are there is a new normal and we aren't entirely clear what that will be.

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  2. What a great quilt and memory of this difficult time. I appreciate all the links you included. Your hubby is such a sport to go up on the roof for the photo...how did you keep the boys from following him up there? I hope you and your family stay well as we start to move around again.

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  3. Oh, wow! Congratulations on making it to the end - and having a quilt to show for it! Gotta love a man who will climb a two story roof so you can get a quilt picture or two. =)

    Thanks for the heads up on the pantographs, too. It might be good to have at least one of them =) Our county library is opening 8 branches tomorrow ... and not one is really close to me, or the ones I normally use. LOL But it's about the last thing on my list of places I need open, so there's hope. Now if I can just get back my Sunday church, I'll be all set!

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  4. That's quite the quilt picture! Absolutely perfect binding fabric--how did you do that?! :) Such a good match! Fun pattern, great quilt to remember this time.

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  5. Enjoy the freedom! That's a great block and a great finish. But I ♥ that striped binding.

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  6. Thanks for linking up to TGIFF!

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  7. Kudos to your husband for climbing up there for the photo shoot - awesome! And your finished quilt is perfect as a remembrance of this time in our history. Sorry to say i missed your original post, but do believe I will get out my scraps and start a quilt myself. I really do think we need to stay at home a bit longer.

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