This quilt started out as a throw. It sat unquilted for a year and every now and then my son would check back about who it was for. He was very clear about not wanting this one to leave the house. In the spring of 2009 I realized his bed quilt was getting worn and I decided his favourite quilt top might be expanded to a twin size. A few extra borders later I started hand quilting it and it finally made it onto his bed in October or November 2009.I learned 3 things while making this quilt.
First - don't take shortcuts when bias edges are involved. I thought I would cheat and sew the sashing strips on without measuring them, then cut the extra off the ends. Oops. The sides of the braids are all bias edge and they just stretched, so my quilt developed a very pronounced curve. I had to rip all the those seams, measure the sashing as I should have done in the first place, then sew then back on. Lesson learned!
Second - I hate having to pull thread through wax or some other conditioner to make it stronger for hand quilting. I'd always used hand quilting thread before, but this time wanted to try a variegated thread in the braid so it would blend more. It turned out just like I wanted it to, but I'm not sure I'll do it again.
Third - Traditions are easy to start. Back when I made my son's first quilt I messed up the first block and didn't have enough fabric to redo it, so I made one plainer block and embellished it by quilting his name onto it. Then it was expected that I would quilt my daughter's name into her quilt somewhere. When I started quilting this one my son's first question was "Where are you going to quilt my name on this one?" It's in there. This picture doesn't show it, but each letter of his name is in one of the coloured squares in the small innermost border. I'm now quilting a new quilt for my daughter and guess what she wanted to know?
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's quilts. I'm off to browse the festival now!
