Hexagon logs

When receiving this quilt from an out-of-town quilter, all my skills, creativity, patience or whatever you would like to call it, were tested.

Along with the two quilts sent, computer-printed motifs came with instructions to do them on the quilts.

Now, as much as I’d like to improve my skills and get better at what I do, I am sadly just a freehand quilter and not a computer.  I won't be able to get the left side of any block exactly like the right or the bottom like the top.

I explained this to the maker, but she was adamant I had to try my best or at least do something similar to the prints she sent me.

I drew out heaps of motifs on paper diamonds the size of those on her quilt and finally came up with something I hoped would work.  For that, though, I had to make cardboard templates, two per block, and these had to be marked on the blocks.  The tiring part was that both light and dark fabrics were used in every block (diamond), and I had to use the blue water-erasable pen on the lights and a chalk marker on the darker fabric.  Time-consuming to the extreme.

I started out quilting, all the while hoping for the best, and as I progressed, I could see mistakes.  Backtracking was not very neat, curls not ending exactly on the same spot on both sides and echoes not spaced perfectly.  I did my best, and that is what I can offer.

Once off the frame and all the markings removed, I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome.  Very few of the problems I noticed while standing by the quilt were even visible once it was off the frame and seen as a whole.

The maker has not seen the quilt yet, but liked what she saw in the photos I sent, so I am hoping she’d be just as pleased once she sees the real thing.