The (Not Quite) Purdue Quilt
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Ever since I told my youngest sister, Samantha, that I was making Kayla a quilt for her wedding, Samantha has wanted me to make her one. And now that I’ve used up a good portion of my scrap fabric and smaller stash pieces with the crazy quilt, the baby quilt for Lukas, the School Days quilt, and my Sassy Charm quilt – I finally feel like I’m in a good place to start working on a quilt for her.
Samantha wants a Purdue quilt – but without it really looking like a Purdue quilt. To me that means, let’s use blacks and golds, but not any licensed fabrics. Let’s incorporate it into the look of her room, but make it so she can still take it with her to college if she goes somewhere else.
Fortunately when I stopped down at Quilts N’ Bloom last week to pick out the fabric for the back of the Sassy Charm quilt, and it occurred to me to ask Kathy if they had enough fabrics to pull it off. I didn’t think that she would, because Quilts N’ Bloom is a small shop – but with her help, we were able to find plenty of fabric.
The pattern I’m using calls for 30 fat quarters for the size quilt I’m making. She didn’t have 30 different fabrics, but she had 15 that were great. So, since I felt there was enough variation in what she had, I just bought half a yard of each color. To that, I added a few fat quarters from my stash at home, and came up with what I hope is a nice mix.
I’m pretty proud of my progress so far. I got all my fabric ironed, got the 1/2 yards cut into fat quarters and then got all those fat quarters cut into strips. There is a set of 8.5-inch strips, three 2/5-inch strips, and a 5-inch strip. I’ve decided to work with one strip group at a time. I decided to start with the 5-inch strip, which got cut down to make blocks.
I’ve even got a few of them put together already.
I’m sure this quilt will take a while to do, especially as busy as I’ll be the next few weeks, but hopefully it won’t take the 6 months to piece that Kayla’s did. I really must remember to not make a quilt using 1.5-inch strips again unless I can find them pre-cut, and event then I shouldn’t work so small.
What quilting projects are you working on?
I am looking for quilting cotton in Purdue Gold. I know I can’t get the licensed gold, so I want a similar color. Cant seem to find it. Can you help??? I found the Purdue Black and White is easy. Using this for a quilt for a May graduate!! Thanks for any help
Margaret, most of my “golds” came from Moda’s Kansas Troubles and Primitive Gatherings. They aren’t my usual style of fabric, but the lines have a lot of fabrics that work as “old gold.” If you’re looking for more of a solid, focus on the Primitive Gatherings “Primitive Muslin” fabrics. They’re slightly textured and you’re likely to find the old gold you want.