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.

Quilt for a long-awaited baby

The maker of this does not regard quilting as her craft, but as a mother of 3 boys, with the 2 younger ones getting married early, both with 2 kids, she had her oldest, who got married late and was unable to have a little one of their own.

Many treatments and heaps of money, and MUCH later, they found out they were pregnant.  The scary/funny part is that he is now 47 and his wife is 42.  Never too old to try something new.

Grandma decided to make this quilt for this rather special little one. We chose a denser meander to hide all the puckering.  Grandma did her best, and the result is still pleasing.

Newbie, or so she claims, quilter

 I received this beginner sampler, and the maker, as well as the local teacher, claims she did not do any sewing before doing this quilt.  I looked closely at her seams and points and found it really hard to believe, but I don’t think they’d lie to me.  We might just have a master quilter in the making.

Kaffet Fasset quilt

I have a confession to make…. I dislike Kaffe Fassett fabric. While working on this quilt, I had a list of reasons, but once it was done, I realised this is just my opinion, so I won't share the details.

I have, however, decided to try to convince any future Kaffet Fasset fans, handing me quilts to finish, to settle for an all-over meander instead of any detailed motif or even custom quilting.  With this feather filler, I simply couldn’t see where I’ve been, where I am supposed to be going or looking back on what I did, see any motif at all. It was just a crazy bunch of overprinted colours.  To me, too much.

I struggled to finish and ended up just quilting in half-hour increments, as that is how long I could pretend to enjoy it.  When I finally advanced to where I could see the backing, I knew at least the motif on the back was visible.

Twisted rope runner

I searched the internet for the name of this technique and saw that it goes by different names.  For the previous one, I used “twisted pole” and opted to give this one a different name.

The previous one was also done in an edge-to-edge pattern, while this one is custom-quilted and, as small as it is, kept me busy a couple of days.