The Dear Tula Pink Quilt is Finally Finished

I started my Dear Tula Pink Quilt in 2013 right after I retired and this was going to be the quilt project to make sure I kept my focus on quilting and not waste any of my newly acquired "free time."   

I purchased Tula Pink's 100 Modern Quilt Blocks right after it was published in 2013.  To prepare for this project, I had the book spiral bound, purchased a Moleskine graph paper book to keep track of the blocks and the fabrics used for each block and I even set up a Pinterest board.  I called this project "Dear Tula Pink" because this was going to be, for me, like the "Dear Jane" quilt started by Brenda Papadakis which was very popular at that time, and may still be, and it was the quilt to make for those who like a challenge.

One of my favorite color combinations is black, gray, brown, tan, gold, taupe and beige. I used a mash of Civil War, Asian, Traditional, Modern, Blenders, Florals, Geometrics and Novelty prints for this quilt.  Luckily for me after I pulled these fabrics from my stash, I found a print online of the Skyscrapers which, to me, tied in all of these colors.  I was planning to use this for the borders.

These are some of the blocks which you can see the different fabric types used.

And now for some stories as to how my Dear Tula Pink was made and finally finished after four years.  First of all, I intended to make all 100 of these blocks.  After I had made a few of the blocks, I happened to show them to my two quilt peeps and they wanted to join in--it would be a nice group project they said.  Each one of us would make three of the same blocks and share them with each other. Unfortunately, this idea ended less than a year after one peep made around 30 blocks and the other one whose idea was to do this together only did 21. I ended up making 39 blocks.  I was disappointed, but understood, that the other two peeps didn't have as much time as I did and when you think about it, 39 blocks multiply by four (I made two of each for myself) is 156 blocks and I was getting tired of them, especially making four of the same blocks and they were 6" finished which is too small for me.  I do like to think if I did the project by myself and only made one of each block, I probably could have made all 100 blocks.

After the decision was made to discontinue making the blocks. I made this quilt using some of the blocks made by one peep based on one of the layout ideas in the book.  I used two shades of dyed muslin and a colorful stripe fabric I had in my stash.  It's only a coverlet, no batting, just a backing of tan corduroy with light quilting.

It took me around two years to finally come up with the layout for my blocks and the funny story is that I had just finished putting together my Gypsy Wife blocks last year and if you are familiar with this pattern, the blocks are set in strips of fabric which I just didn't want to do (I was mentally exhausted after making those GW blocks) so my blocks were laid in a Sampler layout.  But with my Dear Tula Pink quilt, I wanted to set these blocks with fabric strips and solid pieces of the Skyscraper print.  After a couple of false starts this year, I finally quilted Dear Tula Pink with straight line quilting using a variegated black, brown and tan thread.

While I was finishing up this quilt and I was on Pinterest, I noticed that someone had pinned one of the blocks I had on my Dear Tula Pink Project board.  It turned out it was a block made by my dear quilt blog friend Susan Snooks, PatchworknPlay, and I had probably pinned before we became friends.  I noticed her block had similar colors and fabrics like my quilt so I went on her blog to find her finished quilt and I was amazed at the similarities between our two quilts using the same colors and fabric designs and that her blocks were laid out in the skyline layout (remember I featured a Skyscraper print in my quilt).  I sent a message to Susan asking her for the link to her quilt so you can check it out for yourself: Susan's City Skyline Quilt.  Pretty freaky, don't you think?  Susan started and finished her City Skyline quilt in 2013.  Too bad I didn't know her back then, maybe I would have made more blocks, we definitely could have shared blocks.

On my Minus 100 Yard Challenge, I guess I shouldn't have been so over confident that I could reach this goal, maybe I should have tried for a Minus 10 Yard Challenge instead.  In defense of my fabric purchases so far this month, all I can say it's July and that means sizzling Sidewalk Sales.  Sadly I didn't have to leave the house to make my purchases.

Previous YTD Total:   -49.125 yards

Current YTD Total:    -38.125 yards

Linking up with:

My Quilt Infatuation: Needle and Thread Thursday
Crazy Mom Quilts:Finish It Up Friday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict:  Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?
Busy Hands Quilts:  Finish Or Not Friday