Old / New Project

Tonight I started quilting a quilt that I had started and put together earlier this year. I moved with it in that unfinished state and never got back to it. The quilt from the beginning was very "BRIGHT". It's a fun and bright quilt. I stepped outside of the box when I chose this pattern and fabrics. Most quilters that know me would call me a traditional quilter so this was a bit out there.

When I started this project early in 2009 I decided to change the pattern a bit to work with the line of fabric I had chosen. I fell in love the Moda Fresh by Debbie Strain and decided to fussy cut the panel for some of the blocks. I didn't have a purpose for this quilt except to learn how to make stars but I did learn a lot about putting this one together.

I decided to quilt in the ditch around the interior of each box with a white thread. I'd like to use a multi color thread around the stars. Here's an "as is" photo. I'm only about 1/4 of the way finished witht the quilting. I'll show you a finished quilt picture when I complete it.

Baby Quilt

After going to one quilt show you can't wait to get to another. I planned on visiting my second AQS quilt show in Nashville, TN, for months. I had decided to upgrade from my $99 dollar Brother from Walmart.

So in true quilt show fashion, I played hooky from work for a few hours, met up with my friends, we had to have gotten coffee, and then shopped all morning at the quilt show. Amy, Maria, Linda, and Pam were all there and they helped me to purchase a Janome sewing machine. We also had a great lunch at a pub in the Opry Mills Hotel and Convention Center.

Buying a sewing machine may have been my biggest and most exciting purchase to look forward to at the quilt show; but, the quilt show had another surprise in store for me. I found the fabric for my first child's quilt. A little "premature" my husband said but I couldn't risk not having this perfect fabric line for my baby quilt. That's the thing with fabrics, they are sold in lines, and new fabric lines come out often. Finding fabrics you've passed up the chance to purchase is nearly impossible especially if you are looking for more than one fabric from the line.

This quilt took me the longest to start due to my misunderstanding of the first instruction. I was also very wary of making a mistake because I purchased the quilt as a 'kit' and was limited to the amount of fabric I could screw up on. =-) Putting this quilt together was a lot of fun. I quilted all of it myself after attending a Beginning Quilting class with Linda Bridges at Blooming Stitches (Clarksville, TN). I finally finished the binding today and I am excited to say it is complete. (And I did it all - check out my first all over meander and lots of stitch in the ditch.)

First Quilt Commission - Complete

Since arriving in Cambridge, MA I've had multiple suggestions and requests from friends and family to work on quilts, create quilts or just sew for friends. I'd brushed off the requests in the past, until I had the request to make a quilt from someone's favorite childhood comforter.

I received the blanket in November/ December and was planning to finish it for the holidays. That however didn't happen in the midst of my normal life schedule. I took the queen size comforter (hershey kisses print), removed the original high loft batting, washed the fabric, cut out the border, backing and binding of coordinating fabric and put it together. Then I decided to keep the original quilting design, since twenty years of stitching has left a permanent impression in the fabric. I quilted this 57x75 quilt by quilting over the original design. The older fabric was slightly uncooperative and was extremely stretchy so it wasn't perfect; but, I think I worked it out. Then I spent the past few evenings sewing the binding on. I completed the quilt last night in time for the customer's husband's birthday. I'm excited that its done and I'm hoping its what she expected. Attached are photos of the completed quilt.

I have a few more UFO's (Un-Finished Objects) to finish this month; however, I've got my next commissioning on the horizon and I'm looking forward to it.