Presenting: Ronquilt!

Finally, at long last, here it is: my favorite quilt I've ever made! Checking in at 1200 2.5" squares on the front and 45 hand-traced Pyramid of Greatness blocks on the back, this was definitely a labor of love. And boy do I love it. :)

Nope, not photoshopped. The state capitol has all 93 counties listed around the top, and there is a Pawnee county in Nebraska.

Last year, Happy Zombie hosted a "Ron Swanson Along" in homage to the great Ron Swanson of TV's Parks and Recreation and generously released this pattern into the internet wilds. It's been on my list ever since. I created the back based on Ron Swanson's Pyramid of Greatness and I traced every one of the pyramid blocks to create what I hope will be a long-lasting effect. 

I did a basic meander in matching thread on Ron's face, and then I tried paisley quilting on the turquoise areas. I love, love, love how it turned out.

Once Ron was finished, I took him on a photo tour of Lincoln, Nebraska (again based on a similar idea from Happy Zombie.) I took things a step further and tried to mostly pick locations that emphasized Ron's personalities and tastes or funny moments from the show, and I think I succeeded pretty well.

"Your work is appreciated. Eat some corn."

"You may have thought you heard me say I wanted a lot of bacon and eggs, but what I said was: Give me all the bacon and eggs you have."

"I have so many ideas. Some are simple like take down traffic lights and eliminate the post office. The bigger ones will be tougher, like 'bring all this crumbling to the ground.'"

"My dream is to have the parks system privatized and run entirely for profit by corporations like Chuck E. Cheese. They have an impeccable business model."

"I buy my burger ingredients at Food N Stuff, a discount food outlet equidistant from my home and my work. I came here for the same reason people go to the zoo... Nature is amazing."

You can see Ron's full photo tour here.

This is the first quilt I've made for myself, and boy is it a doozy. I might have to quit quilting--I mean, where does one go from here? :)

Linking up with Finish it Friday!

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Ronquilt Quilting

Ronquilt is all quilted and ready for his binding! I'm pretty excited. :)

The paisley quilting was a new one for me. I really, really, really like it, although it was a bit tricky given that I had to fill some odd square spaces. Ron's head is done in simple meandering, which worked well for filling odd spaces and matching thread colors. Pin It

WIP Wednesday: Ron's Glorious Back and the Resurrected BOM

I started the Skill Builder BOM at Pile O' Fabric back in January. I completed those blocks right on time and then... didn't do any more. Not sure BOMs are a great fit for me. ;)

However, this week, I decided that I'm going to try to catch up a little bit. I didn't really have a place for this finished quilt (it's almost a queen size), but I've decided to put it in the room where I stay at my mom's newly purchased house (this is relevant, I promise!) That room has orange carpet. Yes. Orange. In fact, that orange carpet is all over the basement, so replacing it isn't really an option due to cost. So, I thought maybe I could tie in some orange to this quilt so it would look like it belonged there.

But I don't know that I'm loving it. It's not quite as neon as it looks in this photo, but it definitely stands out (it's a rich red-orange, really). So I haven't put the borders on that block, because I think there is a chance I rip it apart and put in something less jarring. I know that a quilt in all blues and greens will look nice--it's a safe choice. And it will look much better in the orange bedroom than whatever is there now (a light blue and yellow comforter--gorgeous!) ;) The full layout looks like this, and theoretically, I could put the dark orange wherever there is white in Alyssa's mockup:

Thoughts?

I've also fully discovered the danger of late-night piecing:

Haha, oops. How is it that those things go totally unnoticed until the whole block is together?

Ron quilt is also proceeding rather nicely. Both the front and back are fully pieced, and I'm hoping to get it basted today (it's fellowship application season, however, which is both extremely sucky and extremely time-consuming... so things aren't going as quickly in the sewing realm as I'd like.) However, here is a preview of the back. I'm pretty dang proud of it. :)

Hope the rest of your Wednesday is grand!

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Memories of Now: Ron Swanson Lives

I'm pretty excited about this one. :)

He's Ron F***ing Swanson. :)

Ever since I saw Monica's "Swansonalong" last year, I've known that I needed a 100% cotton Ron of my very own. And now that is tantalizingly close to coming true. Bully for me. :)

1200 2.5" squares is no laughing matter, so I was pretty thrilled to finish the blocks last night. You know, I used an AccuQuilt cutter for the squares, because I thought it would be nice to have them perfectly accurate (my mom had bought the cutter on sale, so I got to take it for a test run.) I wasn't... overwhelmed by it, to be honest. (I know that's practically blasphemy in the quilting community!) For starters, the squares weren't always perfect. I assume that was in part because I started with too many layers of fabric (six seems to be the absolute max) and that threw the cutting off. So that was disappointing. Honestly, if one is just cutting squares or rectangles, I think cutting with a rotary cutter is just as fast as aligning your scraps of fabric in the cutter and rolling it through, and with a lot less waste. That said, I'd be willing to give it another shot for non-square shapes, because I think it could save time and effort with those.

My grade: B-   For the price, I don't think it's worth it, especially as it did seem to have some accuracy issues (possibly user error, however.) That said, if I were doing a quilt with circles or other applications with more finicky shapes, I would probably love it a lot more!

In other news, I'm also sewing the binding on a Christmas quilt from last year (oops) and trying to finish a baby quilt for a baby who is now three months old (oops again) and who is coming to visit this weekend. I'll post pics of those when I'm finished!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday. Pin It

WIP Wednesday: The Man, The Moustache

Here's what I'm working on this week:

Know what it is? Here are some hints:

--"I’m a simple man. I like pretty, dark-haired women, and breakfast food."

--"Turkey can never beat cow."

--"You had me at meat tornado."

And of course...

--"Give me all the bacon and eggs you have."

Monica at the Happy Zombie had a "Ron Swanson Along" last year and thus instantly became my biggest quilting hero. I've known I must make Ron ever since I saw it, and I've finally steeled my resolve to face all of those tiny squares, and start on the greatest quilt of my career thus far.

Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about this one. :)

Linking up for WIP Wednesday.

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