It only took 30+ years....
08-18-2015, 08:23 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Port Orford, OR
Posts: 279
It only took 30+ years....
Started out in the Summer of 1984after my divorce became final & I’d met Derwin - a project to keep myselfbusy, that didn’t cost anything, & that I could sit on the floor and workon. Template squares hand drawn w/ruler & scissor cut from cereal boxcardboard. Individual pieces tracedaround the templates & scissor cut. Center hand pieced with single thread & running stitch in 1984,early ’85. Re-married; moved fromSacramento, CA to Barstow, CA in May, 1985 – center hung on a hanger packedaway in back of a closet. Settled intolife w/one D of mine, a D & S of his, & we had 2 more sons. Somewhere in there bought the black for simplesingle borders & back according to pattern when working on youngest 2 boys2[SUP]nd[/SUP] of matching bunk bed quilts (1[SUP]st[/SUP] in 1987 & 2[SUP]nd[/SUP]between 1990-’95). Decided 80” squarenot big enough, began researching ideas for increasing size.
Moved to Mohave Valley, AZ in 1997,joined the Colorado River Quilters Guild & showed the center (which hadbeen stored since 1985). By Fall, 1999 ready to proceed - added black pipingaround “medallion” center, then 7” muslin inner border, 2” red - 2[SUP]nd[/SUP]inner border, and finished w/7” black outside border – all w/mitered corners. In July, 2000 found black & whitecheckered backing fabric in quilt shop in Flagstaff while on an NAU outingw/son. Decided to add 10” black bordersto backing square for sizing & interest. Laid out on floor & hand basted the layerstogether (using the inexpensive polyester type batting found in plastic bags atJoanne’s fabrics…) and basted the quilt onto the hand quilting frame poles& it then hung in our hall gallery “as is” until I took it down in 2009. By this time I was beginning to teach myselfmachine quilting having started on my little White “Jeans” Machine, graduatingto a brother 1600 on a 6’-10’ frame and graduating up to a Tin Lizzie Eighteenon a 10’ frame, but being a die hard old fashioned hand quilter, really didwant to finish this one by hand considering it had been done all by hand sofar. It waited while I learned &practiced more machine stuff – both piecing & long-arm quilting. Set up the frame & did the hand quilting overthe Winter of 2009-10 after I had decided how I wanted to quilt the center& had settled on the Celtic Knot pattern (and drawn it to size to fit themuslin border & corners). By then wedecided to think of it as our 25[SUP]th[/SUP] Anniversary quilt. After completing the main body of quilting& the white inner border I again showed it at the guild and afterexplaining my idea to straight line quilt (like piano keys) went along w/theirrecommendations of cross-hatching the red-black borders. Crosshatched all 4 sides of the red/blackborders & really didn’t like the finished look so decided to re-stitch tomy original idea of straight lines. Derwin died May, 2011 – a couple weeks after our 26[SUP]th[/SUP]. It again sat – but this time folded up in aglass fronted cupboard along w/a few other hand stitching projects as I had toreturn to teaching full-time until I could pull RR retirement at age 60. Moved from AZ back to El Dorado Hills, CA inSept. 2013. Slowly began to get backinto my quilting after the first year or so of settling in to a new chapter inmy life and decided it would be a good fit in the living room of thathome. Had a couple opportunities to takea hand project out of state for family stuff so it went & actually gotworked on while I was out of my studio & finally finished.
I know in my perfectionist, oldschool quilting head, all the things I have done wrong (or - not that they werewrong, but could have been done much better and/or differently) with this quiltas I have learned new ways & sometimes smarter ways to do things, etc… overthe past 30 years. But it is mine, forme, Bob truly loves & appreciates having it in his living room, andactually I am quite pleased with how it has come out J
Moved to Mohave Valley, AZ in 1997,joined the Colorado River Quilters Guild & showed the center (which hadbeen stored since 1985). By Fall, 1999 ready to proceed - added black pipingaround “medallion” center, then 7” muslin inner border, 2” red - 2[SUP]nd[/SUP]inner border, and finished w/7” black outside border – all w/mitered corners. In July, 2000 found black & whitecheckered backing fabric in quilt shop in Flagstaff while on an NAU outingw/son. Decided to add 10” black bordersto backing square for sizing & interest. Laid out on floor & hand basted the layerstogether (using the inexpensive polyester type batting found in plastic bags atJoanne’s fabrics…) and basted the quilt onto the hand quilting frame poles& it then hung in our hall gallery “as is” until I took it down in 2009. By this time I was beginning to teach myselfmachine quilting having started on my little White “Jeans” Machine, graduatingto a brother 1600 on a 6’-10’ frame and graduating up to a Tin Lizzie Eighteenon a 10’ frame, but being a die hard old fashioned hand quilter, really didwant to finish this one by hand considering it had been done all by hand sofar. It waited while I learned &practiced more machine stuff – both piecing & long-arm quilting. Set up the frame & did the hand quilting overthe Winter of 2009-10 after I had decided how I wanted to quilt the center& had settled on the Celtic Knot pattern (and drawn it to size to fit themuslin border & corners). By then wedecided to think of it as our 25[SUP]th[/SUP] Anniversary quilt. After completing the main body of quilting& the white inner border I again showed it at the guild and afterexplaining my idea to straight line quilt (like piano keys) went along w/theirrecommendations of cross-hatching the red-black borders. Crosshatched all 4 sides of the red/blackborders & really didn’t like the finished look so decided to re-stitch tomy original idea of straight lines. Derwin died May, 2011 – a couple weeks after our 26[SUP]th[/SUP]. It again sat – but this time folded up in aglass fronted cupboard along w/a few other hand stitching projects as I had toreturn to teaching full-time until I could pull RR retirement at age 60. Moved from AZ back to El Dorado Hills, CA inSept. 2013. Slowly began to get backinto my quilting after the first year or so of settling in to a new chapter inmy life and decided it would be a good fit in the living room of thathome. Had a couple opportunities to takea hand project out of state for family stuff so it went & actually gotworked on while I was out of my studio & finally finished.
I know in my perfectionist, oldschool quilting head, all the things I have done wrong (or - not that they werewrong, but could have been done much better and/or differently) with this quiltas I have learned new ways & sometimes smarter ways to do things, etc… overthe past 30 years. But it is mine, forme, Bob truly loves & appreciates having it in his living room, andactually I am quite pleased with how it has come out J
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