Saturday, June 20, 2009

Like Giving Away a Child, Almost

About two years ago, I bought a lovely teal & brown fat quarter bundle. It lived in my stash for a few months waiting for the perfect pattern..... it showed up in a American Patchwork & Quilting magazine about the same time my friend Sandie moved into a new house. Perfect timing! It was to be a housewarming gift, the color were perfect for Sandie's decor and I was excited to work on a new project. The original pattern was done in a softer color palette with minimal contrast, it had applique flowers and leaves and either no border or a one fabric border (too lazy, I mean, busy to dig out the magazine). I got rotary cutter happy and cut too many squares, but they worked perfect as a pieced border. Then..... This is where it becomes the same old story, once the top was done, the stars misaligned and it was put away in a closet to be finished at a later time. Since then, Sandie moved again, went through some major medical treatments and the top still waited for its chance to come out of the closet.
Now in the present, I've been so excited and motivated by my last finish , the sewing machine was already setup for free motion quilting, I could use way more practice on the machine quilting, and most importantly it was time for this baby to go live with its rightful owner. The top made it out of the closet and is now finished! The binding will be hand sewn tonight and this child is ready to meet Sandie next Monday.
I'm getting better at regulating my stitches and the puckers and tucks are minimal, still sticking with meandering though.

I love it, love it, LOVE IT!. It will be painful to give it away! I want to keep it, but I already opened my big mouth and the entire world knows who this baby belongs to, so I'll just have to chin up and pass it on. Maybe I'll make another for myself, if I do, I'll try not to take two years the second time around. Great opportunity to reduce stash.

Right, almost forgot, Stash report: Nothing in, nothing out. Oh wait, yes I used 18 inches of white fabric for the binding, I'll add it up on next week's report.

2 comments:

Brenda said...

You know what really was going on with that gift don't you?? It wanted to be quilted properly and knew you weren't ready yet when it made you put it back in the closet. When it heard Sandie had finally moved to where it really wanted to move to in the first place, then it made enough noise for you to send it on it's merry way!! And it's going to miss you too, but knows you won't be lonely for long!! It is a nice looking quilt you've made there - I would have a hard time giving it away too!!!

Sheila said...

It's very pretty! May I ask which issue that was in? (and I love Brenda's logic above!)