It was a long winter and here it is almost the end of April and I have yet to finish a quilt for myself this year. For over 25 years I have been quite prolific and finished lots of quilts but not so much the past few months. Mostly what I’ve worked on is other people’s quilts.
After finishing this diamond quilt (French Kiss by Fig Tree Quilts), I made a quilted duvet cover with matching shams and shipped everything off to the client.
Then I made this Stamp quilt and sent it to my sister-in-law who had just found out her daughter’s cancer had returned. Piecing can be very meditative for me and I was praying for my niece and her family as I made this quilt top. When I loaded it onto the frame for quilting I realized the quilt was meant for my sister-in-law so I quickly finished it up and sent it off as a warm hug through her tough times. I’m terrible about documenting my quilts and apparently never even took a picture of this one after I finished it!
After that, I pieced a few blocks but didn’t finish anything, but did some quilting for others. Last year when I wore out my Juki, a friend traded me a Juki that she didn’t use for some quilting. So I quilted this for her:
and this:
Two weeks before Christmas one of my daughter’s friends called and said she wanted to make a quilt for her boyfriend for Christmas—a queen size quilt. She had picked out the Yellow Brick Road pattern and even though she had never sewn anything I figured with a little help she could handle it. I told her it wasn’t realistic to have it finished by Christmas and she was okay with that. She finally finished piecing it in March and brought it over so I could quilt it. I have to say, she did a really nice job on the piecing. Everything was flat and the seams matched perfectly. I added the borders, quilted it and sewed on the binding. Here she is with the quilt. She still had to hand sew the binding but was really excited to finally be able to give it to her boyfriend!
After that I quilted a couple of tops for Quilts Beyond Borders but haven’t sewn on the bindings yet.
Last week I quilted another one for my friend. This was fun because she doesn’t care how I quilt them so I can try new things. This one has feathers in the darker rails and circles in the light rail.
My daughter and I went on a retreat at Olive Juice Quilts in La Crosse and she pieced a top (I just made blocks!!) that I brought it home to quilt. She’s coming home in a couple of weeks and I want to get it finished so she can take it back with her. It will be quick and easy because she doesn’t like heavy quilting—says it makes the quilt too stiff.
Then….I will finish one of my own quilts!
The quilts you have shared are all gorgeous. I do hope your sister-in-law’s daughter is doing well.
Wow…it’s good to see you back. I love your blog today…thanks for the great quilting jobs you have done for me.
Whew, recounted like that, you have spent months quilting and making things beautiful for other people. I do like the quilts you’ve done, and the feathers and circles in the rail fence are very attractive.