I surprised myself, and managed to finish my second quilt. This one will go to a particular church senior upon his graduation. I picked this boy, because he reminds me of my sons, even though he does not know who I am. I hope he is a LOT like my sons and is high on appreciation and low on tidiness, as this quilt has its fair share of crooked seams and one or two other ‘mistakes’ in it. I’d like to think it will be one that he wraps up in often and not just left neatly on his bed. A fair amount of cutting, sewing, unsewing (ripping out), and a teeny tiny bit of swearing went into this quilt. My bobbin thread only broke about 50 times and convinced me, that if I am going to quilt, well then I, the non-sewer, needs a new machine.
I was just about finished with it 2 months ago. I spread it out on the floor at quilting for the feedback of the more experienced quilters (which is everybody). They looked at it, commented and praised my hard work and then said…it might not be big enough, so at that point I gritted my teeth and went back to cutting, sewing and swearing at my machine (which is not really even my machine, it is My Loving Spouse’s machine). A new sewing machine for me is on ‘the list’, unfortunately for me it is somewhere under taxes, insurance and fixing the sinking pantry floor.
We are also excited about another quilt in our future here at Glory Farm, a barn quilt. We’ve decided to be apart of the grass-roots art movement with the Barn Quilt Trail here in the Kitittas Valley. Our ‘quilt’ will be 8×8 and made of wood. The design will be a copy of a square of my grandmother’s first quilt…. The cost for this probably comes on ‘the list’ before the whole ‘I need a new sewing machine’ issue, which is fine. I am quite excited for us to join in the first Barn Quilt Trail in Washington… so stay tuned.
The quilt looks great! I am sure your senior will love it. Such a cool idea that your church does for the graduates. Can’t wait to hear and see more about your barn quilt! P.S. You don’t need a quilting machine…my niece has one. She charges about 1.7 cents a square inch if you ever feel like you need a machine quilted top.
Thank you sewing and non-sewing friends. We will not be buying that fancy of a machine when the time comes, just a little fancy. Sewing machine pronounced dead last night at church for quilting. Another quilter is letting me use her old machine and it is SO much better that I am tickled at how much more fun this process is now!
Should you truly become attached to this passtime you had best forewarn your loving spouse that we have friends whose passion resulted in spending upwards of $12K on a quilting machine. Instead of settling simply for a “sewing machine” if you are serious it would seem to demand that you do some serious research before purchasing anything more.
David (husband of a non-quilting spouse)
LOVE the Barn Quilt idea! BTW, we ended up with a new sewing machine around here last month – BIG change from the old and tired machine.