Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Every Quilt Has A Story

Nothing inspirational, but here's the story that goes with this one. A long time ago, I wanted to make a quilt that would be masculine, and I had a set of plaid squares that I wanted to use up and thought they would do nicely in the quilt. I was still pretty new to quilting, and the fabrics were not what I would choose today. (Meaning, yes, I know, it's not a pretty quilt!)

At that time, I didn't have access to a long arm quilter, didn't even know there was such a thing; so I decided I'd have to quilt it myself with a straight line pattern and a walking foot. That meant that every time I changed sewing direction, I'd have to wrestle it under the presser foot to get it turned in the right direction to do the next line of quilting. And it has a polyester batt, which made it puffy. Tedious? You betcha, and the project stalled... for about 10 years.


Last month I came across it again in my sewing room for the umpteenth time and decided I just had to get it done. So I finished up the quilting (yes, using the exact same method!), got the binding on, and finished hand sewing the binding to the back this morning.

So this is my second finish for 2008 and another UFO off the list. You can't imagine how happy I am to get this done! My nephew will get this one.

Credit where credit is due:
The Jacob's Ladder block can be found in Electric Quilt's Blockbase program.
Jacob's Ladder quilt design is my own design. You are welcome to use it if you wish.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, found you through One world one heart. Its a beautiful quilt!
I did my first quilt recently and boy was it a learning experience. I started like you on a ordinary sewing machine and got five minutes into it when the light dawned as to what all those special quilting features on sewing machines were for. I ended up doing it by hand!

Teresa said...

Hi Sue,, I think you Plaid quilt is great. But then I like the colors in it & use them a lot in my home. Are you sure your nephew really needs it!

Pat at Bell Creek Quilts said...

I like the colors in your quilt...as a matter of fact, I'm starting a brown and cream quilt for my bed. My DH said absolutely no bright colors on a quilt for the bed! It's taken me 4 years to work up the courage to do this quilt...

Linda C said...

Welcome to bloggerland, Sue. You will have fun with this and meet the nicest people. Good to have a helper in your son with the html jargon. Bet he was happy to give you a few pointers.

BTW, I popped on over from Pat's place but linked to her after visiting a long time pal, one that I have known for 10 years. I think we are approaching our 2 year blogiversary if it didn't already sneak by us. (I lost my first one through a stupid error on my part after 6 weeks and had to start over.)

I love your quilt and it does look perfect for a guy---no pastels or florals needed there, right? I can completely understand the polyester batting being a challenge when you first start the quilting. I find that by the time the quilt is about 1/2 done it gets easier to manhandle---and we buy the flattest poly you can get for our donation quilts.