Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Quilts

I spent a wonderful weekend in Portsmouth, NH for my annual quilting weekend. This was my 8th year going with my friends, and as usual, it was wonderful. A weekend away from reality, really. All our basic needs are met (food, drinks, and it's held in a B&B, so no worries). And we get 48 hours to indulge in a pastime we love. Some years, I've brought things totally ready to sew and completed multiple quilts in a weekend. Other years I've brought one thing, but stopped at a fabric store, saw soemthing that caught my eye, and made something completely different than planned. I've tried new techniques, made dolls, hobby horses, felt food, crib bumpers... so many fun things. But this weekend snuck up on me. I only had two kits in my stash - one a very simple quilt in fun fabrics, and the other? And insanely difficult quilt that I bought on a whim. Every time I took it out to start working on it, it was like - Damn. That is too hard!

So this weekend, I vowed to just go for it. I gave my friend all my other fabric and projects. Her job was to not allow me to get frustrated and stop. Or to take a break and get distracted. In the beginning, each row would take me about 30 minutes to cut, sew and iron. There were 43 rows total. By the end, I was down to about 20 minutes per row... but still. It was the hardest quilt I've ever made.

When I finished (at midnight on Saturday!) it all became worth it! Check this out!

I couldn't have done it without the help and encouragement of my friends! I'm thinking it will go in Maggie's room - she doesn't have a lot of art work in there. Cool, right?

3 comments:

Melissia said...

That is just beautiful!

Beth Kyle said...

I love your quilt. I really want to get started in making quilts. I have a normal little cheapy sewing machine. What type of machine would you get if you were just starting out and wanted to use it for quilting?

HereWeGoAJen said...

That is gorgeous. And it looks like it was hard!