Crown Royal Quilt
The story of this quilt has a background that begins literally in a bar, which normally would be weird, but not for a quilt made of liquor bags I guess. I was working on my first Crown Royal quilt that was a wall hanging for a coworker who had been saving CR bags since college (10 years). I was a beginner quilter and this first quilt was a disaster. I made the flying geese by hand, it had miniscule seams in places, it fell apart on the long arm, had rippled borders that required tucks - it was One Hot Mess! Fortunately, he loved it and I didn't charge him. It was a huge learning experience and I swore I'd never do another.
Hubs and I have a weekend house down on the Texas coast and I was hand binding this first quilt on our way down there one Friday night. We got into the little fishing village and before getting to our house, we stopped at a local watering hole to visit with friends. After several beers, I go for a comfort break and when I return, Hubs is no where to be found. Then all of a sudden he comes into the bar with this quilt and is showing it off like a proud father. (Don't freak out, the owner smokes too so I didn't have a fit). There's a gentleman at our table that says, "I have to have one of those just like it, but King size. I've been looking for someone to make it for me. How much do you want?" I said, "No way. This thing was a major pain in my *** and I never want to lay eyes on another Crown bag in my life." He says, "C'mon, really. I've wanted one for years and I have a couple hundred bags I've seen saving forever. Please? How much?"
Now, I adore this guy and he's really nice. And he put on that cute puppy dog look and I'd had about 5 beers, so I stupidly said, What size again?" He says, "King. I want to put it on the bed in my boat." (People and their money problems, right?) I ask, "Big bags or little?" He says, "Big bags". I thought about it and like an idiot said, "$1500 and one year." He goes, "Done." and proceeds to pull $750 out of his pocket and hands it to me. Crap. I should have said, "$2k".
This time around, I did it right. I purchased the Quilt in a Day Flying Geese ruler. What a huge difference! I had uniform, perfect seams and geese, and the whole thing was so much more satisfying than the first one. I tried to sew the blocks in a series of 8 every week and I sewed everywhere - including in our barn on a dove hunt with Hubs last January. Crazy! The sashing is an RJR paisley fabric that is no longer in print. I really looked for something that was more masculine, and I found half of it at a quilt store in Port Lavaca, Texas and the rest at the Oberlin Quilt Co in Oblerin, LA. We had taken the RV to Coushatta, LA for a gambling trip and whenever we go, I always stop at the Oberlin Quilt Co just six miles up the road. Craps is my game and at the tables I kept saying, "I'm playing for my quilting money!" I won $1,030 that I went wild with at the 2014 Quilt Festival in Houston! The backing is a Robert Kaufman called Vegas Purple. Is that perfect or what?
My friend Lorena quilted both of these CR quilts and she put this one on YouTube. She describes her ruler work here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxG1olhEqRc
I finished this 104 x 104 quilt in nine months and I just delivered it to him last weekend. It took a total of 113 bags and it was an ALBATROSS and I'll never, never, never, ever do another. Really. There's not enough money in the world.
By BeckyLeeSews
