Hooray for another finished quilt!
This one is my “Blogger’s Block of the Month” quilt, begun in the fall of 2011. I wasn’t able to stay current with all the months, but of the three (!) BOMs I started at the end of 2011/beginning of 2012, this is the only one I mostly kept up with. I’d like to say that I’ve learned from this experience: either keep it to one BOM at a time or don’t sign up for things with a specific schedule. The latter seems unreasonable and the former seems unlikely. Oh well.
The fabrics in the top are mostly from a fat quarter bundle of “In the King’s Garden” (I think) from In the Beginning from 2004-ish. The white is from 2002ish, but the designer’s name wasn’t printed in the selvage so I haven’t a clue. The backing is a more recent fabric, Salt Air, and the binding is Groovin’. I got both of those from Stash.
I’m actually kind of nervous about letting this quilt loose for general use. All that white! I wanted to do the top of this quilt all from my personal fabric collection, and the white was what I had on hand. Perhaps this means I should find a favorite neutral and stockpile that for future projects. I know lots of people love Kona Snow, but it’s too close to white for me, I think. Recommendations? Gray? Cream? Beige?
The most exciting part of this finish is the quilting. See, I have this bizarre notion that if I send a quilt out for someone else to quilt, I can’t say “I made this quilt.” Sure, I made the top, I probably bound it, but I didn’t make the whole thing. I realize that lots of people send their quilts for professional quilting and I don’t think any less of them for it – it just isn’t anything I can do for myself. I’ve wrestled all my quilts to-date through my faithful Bernina. We don’t do fancy patterns but straight lines and loops come out pretty well.
But now, I’ve met Marissa. And she has a long arm machine (which, now that I’ve seen one in person, I can say, yes, definitely, they are about the size of a car). Even better than that, she’s graciously agreed to not only show me how it’s done but generously allowed me to drive the machine myself. So this quilt is my first long-armed quilt. And I can still say, “I made it myself.” Thanks, Marissa! This makes me so happy!
Congrats – looks great!
That is a beautiful quilt! How lucky you are to know someone who owns a long-arm quilter and is willing to let you use it. I've been wanting to try one for a long time.
Lovely quilt! I too have reached the limits of what I can do in terms of machine quilting with my little Pfaff, so I sympathize with your plight. It's so great that you got to try out the long-arm quilting machine! Anyway it came out GORGEOUS.
I'm not sure you should worry *too* much about the white. When I was growing up I slept under quilts made by my great grandmother with a similar amount of white in them, and they still managed to be white after at least 50 years of heavy use. So perhaps there's hope!
Alice, thanks for the reassurance re the white. I've got another quilt in the works that is also heavily white, so it's good to hear from someone with actual use experience!
I love this quilt even more now that I've heard the story! What a great UFO to finish! The quilting is gorgeous.
Thanks!