My quilt

“My quilt” has been a long time coming. A total of ten years, to be exact. In 2004, on a trip to Las Vegas, my mom bought me a whole bunch of fabric to make a quilt for myself. I had done some for friends fairly recently (a wedding, a dear, dear friend), and it was time to do my own to make up for my first self-quilt that had gotten burned. Sad, sad day, that. It was beautiful, too. But I digress. 

I had the fabric for some time without doing anything with it. It was a busy time. What with Spencer coming home from his mission, school, work, a wedding, more school, more work, and then a baby! My quilt was patiently waiting for its turn.  

Benny's quilt won out first. I even used some of my fabrics (of which I had plenty!). Then it was my turn. I started it while I was pregnant with Andy. There is a picture of me right before leaving the hospital to give birth to Andy sitting at my “sewing table” that has my quilt fabrics around. 

While in Provo I finished the blocks. After moving to Tulsa (at some point) I added the border. I also got the back ready! And I assembled my quilt sandwich. Then after moving here I pulled it out and spray-glued the sandwich together so I could start quilting. For a while, not knowing what to quilt was holding me up the most. I think I was just dragging my feet, though, not wanting to commit to anything. Well, I finally commit. 

It might be a little hard to see, but I did a series of swirls, loops, and threw in a few stars. 

And I was quilting just like I have always quilted: my regular presser foot with the feed dogs up. It was working, but after a couple of hours I had a relatively small section done and my arms were already sore!

Then, by chance, I learned about free motion quilting. A friend posted a picture on facebook of a quilt she had done for her son. I asked about the quilting and had a whole new world open up before my very eyes. I am not kidding. It is amazing what people do on their own – regular – machines. 

It took me a few days to order the free motion quilting set for my machine because it was a bit of an investment for me. I wasn't entirely sure how it would go and I didn't want to waste the money. Spencer reminded me that I could use it for any future stockings in addition to any other quilts. I went for it and I was amazed! Free motion is definitely a skill to learn and I have a long way to go, but I worked it out. 

Some practice. Yes, I tried my name.

The rest of the quilt was very quick work! Definitely not perfect, but I really like how it turned out. I even decided to leave my first attempt in. Rather than take all the time to pick it out, I wanted to leave it as a kind of tribute to my progression. 

The free motion is much closer together than the first attempt. It is a much cleaner look and the curves are much crisper. 

The finished quilt!

Close-up of front. 

And back. 

I did decide to "sign" it. Glad I did. I think it will become tradition!

All this time, Andy on down were going quilt-less (from me – they each have beautiful quilts from their grandma!!). That is all beginning to change. Andy's quilt is sandwiched and all ready to quilt!