Baren*eh*ked_canadian

Good morning all :)

I posted on the other side introducing myself. I am relatively new to the quilting world, although I have dabbled here and there with my mother, who is incredibly handy with pretty much any craft out there.
Anyway, so here's the deal. My best friend is going into the hospital next week, and she will be there as an inpatient for a minimun of 4 months. I will OBVIOULSY be going to visit her every chance I get, we get 2 hours a day, 5 days a week of visiting hours. I was looking for a project to do with her that will keep her busy, be interesting, and be something she can keep when she gets out of the hospital and remember the good things about it, not all the negativity. Someone suggested making a quilt together, and I thought it was genius.
Do any of you fine experienced quilters (and next to me, that's got to be everyone on this forum, lol) have any suggestions for me as to how I go about doing this, or what kinds of patterns or types of quilts we should start off with? Any help would be appreciated :)

robbijmorris

So, you will probably be hand quilting?

Baren*eh*ked_canadian

yea. Well I have a machine at home, actually I have 2, but I would rather start simple and move up.

robbijmorris

I would suggest machine piecing a top, say, maybe a 9 patch strip pieced. Then, you and your friend can hand quilt it together at the hospital. Just my idea, anyway. One of my first quilts was a 9 patch, and I think it is a great beginner pattern.

MissTreated

I have a friend who made the most beautiful hand applique quilt, but mixed up with machine quilting. She appliqued leaves on a block (I believe it was dark leaves on light blocks), then each block was cut diagonally, and resewn to another cut block, giving each one 4 different colors. (two lights on the background, 2 darks on the leaves) It was gorgeous. It was all done in batiks. It was very portable, as each block was worked on by individually. She would carry it all around in a gallon sized zip lock bag.

Best of luck and strength to your friend, and to you as well. Keeping up the visiting schedule will be a challenge. You're a great friend!
M

sondray

http://www.ideas-for-quilting.com/
http://www.quilthowto.com/
http://www.quiltethnic.com/onlinelessons.html
http://www.amongbrendasquilts.com/beginnertips.html
http://www.creativespotlite.com/quilting.html
http://www.infinitefreedom.com/sewing-lessons-pages/doll-quilt.html

These sites should help you with the basics.

Sondra

MissTreated

There are some other patterns out there for some gorgeous scenic/landscape quilts, requiring a great deal of cutting. It might be a nice challenge to sit and cut all those tiny pieces together. Each one is then fused, using a product such as wonder under. They are very intricate.

M