In the Creative Arts Building at the MN State Fair in 2010, I saw a quilt made of Sock Monkey fabric.  I fell in love with the fabric, and HAD to make one for myself.  A few months later, my friend GJK asked me if I wanted to do a quilt class with her (Turning Twenty Pattern), so I signed up with her, and went on my quest to find the Sock Monkey fabric.

I called several MN quilt shops, but none of them had it, so I ended up buying the fat quarters from Fat Quarter Shop .  I was very pleased with the fabric (Funky Monkey by Erin Michael for Moda).   The class was fun, and the squares came together quickly and easily.  The ladies in the class and at the quilt shop loved the fabric.  I’ve been told that the shop owner is now carrying the Funky Monkey Fabric (she must have REALLY loved my quilt!).

I finished the top in April or May of 2011, but hadn’t decided where I was going to take it to have it quilted.  I also didn’t have my backing yet, and decided to order the red sock monkey pattern in a flannel for the back.  I sewed the back together, and found that it wasn’t quite wide enough for machine quilting.  I didn’t want to spend another $50 on fabric to get matching backing, but I also didn’t want to just get cheap flannel from JoAnn’s, only to have it not all get cut off when it was done being quilted.  I finally decided that I’d already spent enough money on fabric, so I bought plain red flannel at JoAnn’s, and pieced strips on the sides for the back.  Off to the Quilter’s Cupboard I went to drop it off.

The owner told me it would be 6-8 weeks until I had it back, but I didn’t care since it’s just for our guest bedroom – it’s not a gift for anyone, so I was in no hurry.  About 3 weeks later, I was in her shop on a Friday to look for more fabric for a new project, when the owner said to me, ‘Aren’t you the sock monkey quilt?  I’m almost finished, I’ll be done on Monday.’  Then she said she really just needed to trim it up, and she could have it in the shop on Saturday.  At that point, I  decided to not spend more money on more fabric that I don’t need right now since I’d be getting that quilt back the next day, and I would need to do the binding for it.

So here it is – complete with Monkeys (Sock & Otherwise).  It’s not bound yet – that may be a weekend project.