Quilting

Serendipity*.

Last year I bought a kit in Amish country to make a small quilt. When finished it will be 22" square. I thought this would be a good introduction into the world of quilting, and I would have a nice finished product that would remind me of our days in South Bend and near Amish country.

So, on a Wednesday I started cutting out squares and triangles according to the patter. Whew! I only got about half way through, measuring and cutting as exactly as I could.

We got an email from our RS president the next week. It was a call from our Stake Relief Society for our ward to sew 13 quilts in less than three weeks. And, they were to be 90" x 90" (king size?). Glup!

So, I dug out my scrap materiel to go through and piece something together. I've NEVER done this, nor even seen it done! When I started pulling out my scraps I couldn't part with them without cutting out what I wanted. It had always been my intention to make a patchwork quilt that would have pieces of all the things I've sewn for the girls over the years. So, I decided to start cutting 6" squares, assuming I could do what I wanted with my pieces later, and use whatever was left for the humanitarian quilt.

I didn't realize my math skills were so amazingly rusty until I went to a sewing group later. Uh, I would have had to cut, piece and sew 324 of those little squares to make a finished quilt. Thankfully, Kelly Galbraith looked at me funny when I said that I was cutting six inch squares. It made me redo the math and realize that it was truly as crazy as the incredulous look on her face!

Melissa Correy, who whipped out two incredibly beautiful quilts (disappearing 9-squares) in two days, gave me some links, some thoughts, and lots of great advice to help me get started.

Less than a week after the call to action, I woke up a Wednesday morning, pulled out my cutting mat and my material and set to work. I had enough 6" squares (probably close to 300, really), but I decided that making them into a 16" square, and cutting out more of the same size one-piece squares would be more economical of my time.

I took the small squares and laid out my pattern. I was frustrated with the bright pink gingham and the shocking orange. I didn't want either to be too overpowering, but I didn't want the quilt to look entirely girly pink. I used the green animal print as a stand-in for the nine-block patches of six-inch blocks I'd put together later. This is what I arrived at:
It would've been a little easier to piece things if I hadn't had the help of my two-year-old who decided that laying out blocks of material was great fun, and wouldn't this red gingham look great on top of the green animal print? Or how about taking this blue one you had right there and I'll put it over here. Oh! and here's a big square that I can help you with and add to your little squares.

I put her down for a nap before I finished laying out the whole thing and working on the nine-squares.

I cut some more large blocks and then pushed back some furniture to lay out the whole pattern as best I could. I then worked on the nine-piece blocks to get them where I could. Working with scraps was a little frustrating in that I couldn't do exactly what I wanted to because I didn't have any "extra" blocks. I was able to cut just enough. Serendipity*

So, here are the smaller pieced blocks:


I then started sewing. And pressing. And sewing. ALL DAY Wednesday I worked and worked. And, about 10pm that night (watching Hulu!) I finished sewing the top. Just in time to take it to the ward meeting to tie the quilt. I didn't have any batting or backing, but was hoping there'd be something to work with at the church.

And, I wasn't disappointed. In fact, some companies had donated the batting and material to help in the humanitarian quilts. Kelly and her daughter sewed the backing together, and Sharon McKee directed us to putting the pieces on the frame. She demonstrated how to tie (international stitch) and we set to work. In the hour-or-so there, we finished almost two rows around each of the four outsides. We took it off the frame, and I brought it home with me to finish.


Again, more Hulu and some sore fingers, I finished tying the quilt. Then came the part I'd dreaded. The binding.

In all my exactness for piecing the quilt, I was frustrated because the backing didn't match the quilt top. I couldn't do a roll binding, the backing was too short. I didn't want to do a pillow. So, I made my own binding, cutting more of the material I had on hand. Thanks, Claudia/Mom, for the help with talking me through putting the binding on!


It still didn't turn out like I wanted it to. I think I did the corners wrong. And, because I couldn't sew the binding to the back and fold it to the front, the binding is only visible on the back. *sigh* A little disappointment in an overall very satisfying project.

So, here's my finished quilt.

I'm a little sad to be giving up the first quilt I made.

Although, as I think about it, it's really my second quilt. I made my first when I was in Young Women's. I salvaged my parent's bedspread and made a baby quilt for my first-born son. The blanket is still in my hope chest. Maybe it'll go to my first-born grandson.

Still, I'm happy with this quilt. I hope it'll go to someone who can feel the labor of love put into it. And, I hope it lasts for him/her.

Oh, and although I've always greatly appreciated the quilts I have received (Grandma Winkie's cathedral window, Travis' aunts and their quilt given us on our engagement, quilts made by Aunt Anne for Zoë and Megan, quilt for the girls from Grandma Mert, quilt from the primary president when Zoë was born, quilt from Claudia that adorns our bed when the aunts' quilt doesn't, see, I really remember and appreciate and use them all!), I think this experience has given me an even greater appreciation. But, I wish I lived closer to the aunts so I could learn more. And maybe someday make something like this AMAZING pirate quilt made by Aunt Janice?

So, my next project will be to finish the Amish wall hanging. Then I will work on some comforters for the bunkbeds (I'm tired of trying to tuck in the quilts on their beds.)

*an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident; or good fortune; luck