Bright Bricks - Sunglasses recommended!

Bright Bricks - Sunglasses recommended!

Shortly after I had completed some class projects I had the bright idea of making a quilt as a gift for my Mom.  So I called my sister and asked her what colours Mom likes.  Based on the information she gave I was off to the quilting store to find a nice pattern and the necessary fabric.

I spent longs days to make the quilt in time for Christmas and though only the top was done I decided to give to her anyways.  Well you can imagine my dismay and surprise at the look on her face when she opened the wrapping.  It was apparent right away that she did not like the colour, but given that I am partially colour blind, a condition that has caused much jocularity at my expense in the past, we all had a good laugh.

Needless to say I took it home and put it in my project closet, destined to remain in obscurity forever!  Well, several years later I had the bright idea of making a quilt to donate at the office for our Christmas fund raiser.  Since I had little time to make a quilt I decided to pull out the offending quilt from the back recesses of the project closet and see if I could do anything with it.

Originally the quilt had a border that consisted of various coloured roses.  It was loud and garish to say the least (so everybody claimed).  I liked it but nobody else did.  So, I decided to remove the offending rose border and give it a plain border and finish it with some zig-zag stitching to bracket the inner border and down the center of the outer border.

The end result was a very colourful single size blanket or throw that was donated to the Helping Hands Charity for military families.  I have made other quilts since then that I have also donated to this cause.

This is the pattern/quilt that inspired the quilt I made for my Mom.  Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the quilt I made with the offending roses.

This is the resurrected Bright Bricks quilt.  As you can see it's quite colourful and bright!

Another picture.  I was using my spare bedroom as my sewing studio at the time.

The stitching I did on the edges of the borders.  This served to strengthen the border and cover up the minor damage caused when I removed the original border.

A close up of the finished borders.

I kept the backing simple.

Here is the quilt along with some of the gifts we collected.