I don't finish quilts very often, but this is a very exciting way for me to start off a new year! In October of 2011, I won 18 Snail's Trail blocks in our Minnesota Quilters Block of the Month drawing. Such fun! I laid them all out in the same orientation to think about them. My oldest son Morgan saw me pondering and asked if it wouldn't work to change how they are laid out. Oh my! I feel as though I should have known that!
Of course you're supposed to orient them to make a secondary pattern! I might have gotten there on my own, but I'm so glad he helped me see this! Once I realized how they should go, I decided to make more blocks to form a twin sized bed quilt. I had won 1 blue, 1 orange, 3 dark pink, 2 light pink, 6 yellow, 2 bold green, and 3 light green. I made twelve more - 1 green, 1 pink, 5 orange, and 5 blue. The blocks I won were made by Kara Albrecht, Virginia Mercil, Mariana Campbell, Sally Lajon, Katherine Faust, and a few other people who didn't sign their blocks. (I kept track of which blocks were from which people in my quilting "scrapbook.")
I finally put the quilt top together in 2016. I decided to add piano keys to the top and bottom to get the dimensions I wanted. I even picked out the batting and backing! I was ready to go in July 2016 . . . but other life events crowded it out and it went on a back burner. A very back burner. For a long time.
At an MQ meeting on November 4, 2023, I saw a friend who has invited my sisters and me to quilt at her house on her long-arm machine. (We are actually blessed to have more than one quilting friend like this!) I told this friend that I needed to make a date with her to quilt a project that has been sitting for seven years! She told me to get my calendar and we'd figure out a date. So we did!
On Wednesday, November 15th, I went to her house with my sister Ann and got the backing, batting, and top onto the quilting frame. I got a refresher course on using the machine. I did a little practice, then was off and running!
I did go a little too fast at first and had a bit of "eyelash" stitching. It was a good reminder for me to S-L-O-W down and sew smoothly. What fun to make progress on this!
I used an overall meander because it's easy and I thought it would look fine on the Snail's Trail blocks. My friend Rose offered some different threads, and I chose this beautiful variegated one! So many colors in this quilt! The binding was fabric I had purchased for another project, but I thought it worked perfectly for this quilt.
I was so excited to finish this quilt that I brought it to work (New Prague Middle School and RaDon) to show to people who know me. I took this photo at RaDon, climbing up on the table to get this shot.
I had also laid it on the guest room bed to get a picture of it as an actual bed quilt.
The reason I'm including this in my 2024 studio blogging is because I stitched on the label on the back during the first week of January 2024. I gave it to my grandson Benjamin at our family Christmas on Saturday, January 6th.
I know he's only a year old and can't understand what this quilt means to me, but I hope he'll make good use of it as he grows up!
I'm inspired to work on another UFO . . . (Unfinished Object, to you non-quilters). I've also signed up for the 2024 Declutter Challenge that Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts is running. Oh my! What an inspiration! I've already spent so much time (in small chunks) going through my sewing room, getting rid of unnecessary stuff, and stitching!
I'm working on a quilt that a friend's mom had started for my friend's brother. Sadly, their mom passed away in August 2023. She had the top done and was hand quilting it!
If you're interested in Karen Brown's Declutter Challenge, check this out!
#declutterchallenge2024
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