teaching sewing confidence, tip by tip

Saturday 4 August 2012

An Actor's Life For Me - Surprise Project II Revealed

So you may recall that there were two surprise projects and I've only revealed one so far.  Well here's Surprise Project II - this quilt called 'An Actor's Life For Me' is for my second son, Joe, and is for his graduation also - MDrama (Hons) Drama & Theatre Studies. Joe has also been studying for four years, Years 1, 2 & 4 at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England and Year 3 he studied at UCSD in San Diego, California.  We have had many fab trips down to Canterbury over the years, which is such a beautiful part of England and we were really excited to visit him out in San Diego for a wonderful holiday last year.



The Graduation Ceremony was held at the spectacular Canterbury Cathedral, full of all the pomp and ceremony this venue is worthy of and afterwards we headed over to the Grove Ferry Coaching Inn at Upstreet for lunch with Joe's course mates.  The weather was pleasantly sunny which was most welcome in the middle of a very wet English summer.


Joe also received a generous cheque from Gran and from us his Graduation Quilt.  Here're some photos of him seeing his quilt for the first time (though he did admit to having his suspicions about receiving one as he's an avid reader of my blog and had put 2 + 2 together :) ).


And here's more photos of the quilt itself - and I'm thrilled to announce it was another great hit :)


For this quilt I wanted to include fabrics that are drama and acting related - both theatre and movies, I also wanted to make reference to Joe's time spent in both England and America.  I chose 10 fabrics: drama face masks; costume moustaches; 2x film negatives; 2x film reels; movie admission tickets; movie genre text; and finally 2 fabrics of the Union flag and the Star Spangled banner.  I placed the fabric in 5 horizontal bands of varying width on each side balancing the weight of the colours and designs and placing the country flags on opposite sides of the quilt.  Across the lower front right, I created a solid black section and machine embroidered Joe's name, degree and study dates.  The quilt is bordered and bound in solid black which pulls colours from each fabric and brings the quilt together as a whole. 

The quilting is straight line diagonally set squares creating a 'diamond' design. I used black thread for the machine embroidery and this stands out particularly well against the many white fabric backgrounds.

I named the quilt 'An Actor's Life For Me' as that has been Joe's dream since he could first dress himself- always dressing up as some character or another and putting on puppet shows and plays.  I have been the proud mum many, many times at Joe's performances: acting, singing, playing guitar and reciting poetry and I have laughed over and over when my husband, Simon, has been fooled by another of Joe's many accents and voices on the phone.  We have also become very used to having people come over in restaurants and on the street to point out how much Joe looks like Hugh Grant - just a smidgen of HG's success would be very welcome I feel and I think the world's ready now for a new, younger version!

I hope to have the opportunity to be there for much, much more and to see all Joe's dreams come true for him.  I once asked him what his backup plan is and he told me that he doesn't have one because he has to believe he can do it - it struck me then how just how determined, dedicated and right he is.  Don't forget Joe that I want a mention in your future Oscar acceptance speech ;) x


Related Posts:
Wherever I Lay My Hat - Surprise Project I Revealed


Disclaimer:
This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.


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28 comments:

  1. Wow, Congratulations JT, hope you're reading the comment section of Mum's blog, too! I wish you lots of success, really like your attitude :)) Chrissie, Your kids are soooo lucky to have you as their Mom! I love the picture where he has himself wrapped up talking on the phone :))) And too bad you mentioned because I was gonna say that he reminds me of Hugh Grant. Well done Mom! :)

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  2. UGH! Forgot to mention how nice your pictures look! Again! :)

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  3. What a wonderful quilt and congrats to JT! How lucky to study in England and San Diego! I really love the film strip and the mustache fabrics. I want to make my film editor husband a quilt for his office next year and I'll have to keep all of these great fabrics in mind!

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    1. Thanks Janice. I really struggled sourcing fabrics that were Drama/Theatre/Film based without detailing a specific character/story. Spent hours searching Etsy, Ebay and every online fabric shop I could. Heads up for you that most of the fabrics are by Timeless Treasures but not necessarily in their current ranges. I wish you much luck, they are out there but be sure to give yourself enough time to source them! :)

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  4. Beautiful quilt. And congrats to JT! I'm sure we all wish him the best.

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  5. Great quilt for a great day!

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    1. Thanks Patricia, it was a lot of fun and very special :)

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  6. Another great quilt! And I love your backdrop for your photos. Congrats to him on his graduation, too!

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  7. Another fabulous quilt! Love how much thought and care you've put into making it the perfect quilt (and I really love that moustache fabric!!. Both the quilts you've made your sons are really wonderful and thoughtful!

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    1. The moustache fabric is really fab isn't it - that was one of the first fabrics I bought for the quilt. I've seen it made up in so many ways and it always looks great - best though was small child's pyjama bottoms - to die for! Thank you for your lovely comments also :)

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  8. That moustache fabric is so cool! You're an awesome mum :)

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    1. Isn't it! Having seen your fab transport quilt I think that makes us two awesome mums :)

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  9. I really love your collage pictures, and the quilt is fabulous! I love that it has so much meaning.

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    1. Thanks again! I love using the collages, you can share so many more images with everyone without totally overloading your post, and I think they look great too :)

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  10. Reading this makes me think of my 4 yr old little boy and what he could be when he grows up! He LOVES animals of all sizes so we shall see;)

    Congratulations to your son and may all his future endeavors be another moment to celebrate!!

    P.S. Hugh Grant is pretty good in my book!

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    1. Thanks Sara, your comment is lovely :) I'd give anything to have just another 5 minutes with my 3 when they were small enough to clamber on my knee for a cuddle, it all flies by so quickly. That said I'm loving watching them find their way in life now and getting to know them as the fab adults they have become :)

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  11. Wow... amazing! You've done such a lovely job on both of these quilts, and the way your boys appreciate your hard work shows what a great job you've done raising them. I'm so glad that I happened by in time to see both of your surprises. Such a treat!

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    1. Thanks again Heather and it really was wonderful how delighted they both were with the quilts. Good to meet you too :)

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  12. Another great read!! Love how much your boys cherish your quilts!!

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    1. I love that everyone loves quilts - male or female, we all love them exactly the same! :D

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Chris Dodsley


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