Commission, Create, Complete - part 1

The Story of a Quilt: Commission

com-mis-sion (kuh-mish-uhn)  n.  1. a. The act of granting certain powers or the authority to carry out a particular task or duty.

Several months ago, my aunt Miriam asked if I'd be interested in making a quilt that she could give to her grandson (my cousin's son, which makes him my second cousin  my cousin once removed related to me) for his graduation from high school.  Aunt Miriam had had quilts made for her first two granddaughters and wanted to keep the tradition going.  Their quilts were beautiful picture quilts designed to compliment their personalities. As we discussed what would be appreciated by Ethan, we both agreed that something other than a picture quilt might be needed.  Hmmm.



Then it hit me!  Chuck Norris!  No, Chuck didn't hit me.  I just remembered that Ethan is a huge Chuck Norris  fan.  So it was decided.  Ethan was to receive a Chuck Norris quilt.  But what would a Chuck Norris quilt look like?  Hmmm.

Time to start Googling and Flickring.  I Googled Chuck Norris and came up with lots of pictures of him, information about him and merchandise featuring him (and a site that will be very useful when it comes time for the quilting, but I'll leave that for later) but apparently nobody had made a quilt starring him.  Not yet, anyway!  Hmmm.

On to Flickr.  I love Flickr.  Scrolling through page after page of inspiration, one quilt caught my attention.  It was this one by Luke Haynes.  From Flickr, I went to his blog to look at more of his work.  Wow!  What amazing artwork.   Then I saw this one.  And then this one of Abraham Lincoln also gave me an idea of which direction I wanted to go.

Ok, back to Google for some kind of image that would be suitable.  I liked the idea of a full body image but when I found this one, already "artified" for me, I was sold.

So thanks to Google, Flickr and our quilting group, which provided a much needed sounding board, an idea was becoming very clear in my mind.  Time to go shopping!

I have to admit, shopping is probably my favorite step in the whole process.  I can waste spend hours wandering amongst the bolts looking for (oh, look at this pink one) just the right  (wouldn't this be a nice feature fabric for a bird quilt) fabrics for my (someday I want to make one out of these) project.  Focus!

I started at Hobby Lobby.  They don't have a huge fabric selection but their prices are great (and I like humming to their music).  I was able to get most of what I needed there but also got some at Pacific Fabrics.

I don't usually pre-wash, but since I was using reds, which are notorious for running, I threw them in the wash.  I didn't use the dryer however; I didn't want any more fraying than necessary.  So with the help of the iron...

...they became as dry, (but thankfully not scorched) as Texas in summer (sorry, I couldn't resist. It's a Chuck Norris quilt after all).

And here's an unrelated Hmmm.  Have you ever wondered why wet fabric is usually darker than dry fabric?  Hmmm.

Anyway...

With a clear picture in my head and fabrics purchased and prepped, I was armed and dangerous ready to create!