My
husband and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary yesterday, on 10-10-10! As
a gift to him, I decided to finally finish a quilt that I started for him 19
years ago. It's the first quilt I'd ever made, and I dove into it knowing almost
nothing about quilting. It would be 10 years later that I got introduced to
rotary cutters, quilt stores, batting and binding. It remained unfinished mainly
because after making the top, I didn't know how to bring the back, top and
batting all together. I was also not too entirely happy with the result (just
LOOK at that orange!), and I still wanted to make it bigger with
borders.
So it remained tucked inside my fabric stash, moving from
apartment to apartment, house to house. As I later learned more and more about
quilting I became concerned about the open button holes, and as my quilting
skills progressed this first quilt looked so homely and clumsy. But the
sentiment behind it remained the same... a labor of love, made for a special
person in my life.
My husband knew about it. He'd seen it move from place
to place. Last week, as I pinned it all together, I hoped it would be a surprise
gift. As usual, though, it took longer to quilt than I'd figured. I had to drag
it out over the week-end in order to finish it on time. The look on his face
when he saw me working on it was priceless! He, of all people, knows just how
much time I spend quilting a single quilt.
When I first met him, he was a
forester who's unofficial "uniform" was plaid flannel shirts. I love rainbows,
so I went to the local Goodwill store and found as many colorful shirts as I
could to make the quilt. I ended up buying some of the flannel at the fabric
store, but could only find the solid blaze orange no matter how hard I looked. I
thought it would be neat to leave the pockets and buttons on, and did. I bought
a sheet for the back, and cut out the strips with scissors. I probably broke all
of the "rules" of quilting all in this one quilt.
In order to finish it,
I decided to forget the borders, keep it exactly the way it was, leave the
button holes the way they were, use the sheet I still had for the back, and just
do it. I started trying to stipple quilt it free-motion on my machine, but after
a broken needle and some frustration, I decided to ditch that plan too, and just
use my walking foot to make a grid pattern. To make things even easier, I just
trimmed the back an inch all around the quilt, and brought it around to the top
and sewed it to the front as a "mock binding". Quick, easy, cheap. And it's
done!
Sometimes
I think all the designer fabric, chic patterns and the long arm finishing does
more to impede my quilting process than to help it. I want my quilts to be just
like the beautiful ones in the quilt stores, shows, and blogs... But every time
I see this once-closeted quilt I'll remember the couple who rented small
apartments furnished with second-hand goods, and the time when I bought my
quilting fabric from thrift stores. I'll also be reminded of how far I have come
in my hobby. More importantly, I'll remember our new romance 19 years ago, and
the true reason I love quilting. For me it's a way to show my love to family and
friends.
Here is one of my recent finishes...
Pathway to the Stars...
