sewvivor sewalong - the coloradifornia cameras

crazy name for a quilt, right?
well, it's pretty perfect for this one.
when deciding on a project for this fourth and final challenge, i wanted something that was going to be appreciated by me, and not just done to try and win something schnazzy.  i searched pinterest for LOTS of ideas, and then fell upon this vintage cameras quilt pattern by carina gardener and knew it had to be the one.  lisa agreed, and then it was settled, as usual.  problem is, i had no clue what fabric to use.  i thought about using a line of moda fabric i constantly saw in our local beverley's, but figured i wouldn't get working on it until post colorado.  well, that was incorrect.
you heard about colorado (if this is brand new information, click here) and you heard about the fantastic holly's quilt cabin, and now you'll see where that handful of fat quarters got put to use.  a small recap is that friday we went to the quilt cabin, wandered and oogled.  saturday, we returned to include brett, kent and lorelai on this wonderfulness.  lorelai helped me pick out some fat quarters to use for this project, which helped make it even more special.  i finished my bag project on wednesday, so i really wanted to get some crafting going since lisa had hexagons out the wazoo.  i wonder undered, appliqued and started on the bodies of the cameras, but found that i had run out of fabric.  one last run to the quilt cabin before i left, and luckily found FQs for the flash and button portions as well.  the rest of the fabric came from joann's, which i feel blended quite well with the rest of the fabric in the quilt.
the cameras fabric is all from colorado, the background, border and backing is all from here in california.  thus creating, the coloradifornia cameras.  alright.  enough jibber jabber.  on to the photos!
originally the pattern was 5x5 when it came to number of cameras, as well as a whole lot more scrappy.  i kept the fabric jewel tones similar in shades (you should have heard me hating on the orange ones... it totally happened.  but i appreciate them being there now.  i really do.) and everything else on it uniform as far as the borders of the camera, the lens, flash, and framing around the flash.  i added on another row to unsquare it and add a smidge of length to it as well.
i still wanted that scattered effect of colors, instead of organizing them in diagonal rows. for most colors, there were 2 of each print, 3 of each color scheme (purple, pink, blue, green & orange) which left me at i believe 14 different fabrics. lorelai tried to add red in there when we were at the store, but it just wasn't happening. now these colors, they are totally happening.
here's a bit closer in so you can see the pieces of the camera flash.
i did find one oops in the pattern, where it tells you to cut one of the pieces at 2" when it should be 2.5"
luckily, i had enough of the fat quarter left (the one i originally ran out of while still in colorado) to make enough pieces to replace the oops ones.
soooo i've pretty much been home from colorado for about a month now, and i JUST bought the fabric to do the backing and the border last saturday night AFTER i spent 7 hours at a wedding... yeah, it was an exhausting joanns trip. i found that perfect backing fabric, but they did NOT have enough for it. i purchased a different fabric for the binding, and then drove across town to the other joanns that claimed to have 8 yards of the fabric because i wanted to get working on this project on sunday. they DID have the fabric needed, and a much better fabric for the borders. came home, got my prewash on, and spent pretty much all day sunday working on this quilt, and all day monday finishing up the quilting. tuesday was 100% binding day, and i found myself hand sewing at my computer as i watched lectures for my online classes. that my friends, is emily level of dedication.  p.s. back to fabric.  let's talk about how fantastic this not white white is.  it has this texture-ness to it that isn't quite cross hatch, and it isn't quite checks.  its fantastic, and not stark white either.  the black is a slightly larger print of the same texture, and the back is a teal-ish fabric in the exact same print as the white.  perfect.  love it.
let me just take this moment to point out that since i've started actual quilting, i've never made a quilt for myself.  sure, i have two t-shirt quilts, but those are tied, and generally boring.  this one, i'm never going to let go of it.  or share it.  unless you're uber nice to me.  and even then, probably not.  this year's catvent plans might also fall in to this same "mine all mine" category.
one last photo for the road.
over all, this sewvivor process has been pretty crazy, and i cannot imagine how i would have met the actual deadlines if  was competing for reals.  through the #sewvivorsewalong hashtag, i've sound some pretty fantastic people to follow on instagram, and i hope some people feel the same about following me!  i'm pretty excited to go back to leisurely sewing things here and there, and busting out some blocks for the quilt block swap that needs to be sent out by october 20th (ACK)
oh, and a heads up.  i know i totally skipped out on weekend wips this past monday, but as you can guess, all i did this weekend was quilt this beast.  i have some in progress photos i'll be sure to throw in on next week's post so you can see some of the pre-quilting goodness :)
thanks so much for stopping on by!