December of 2012 – I started a Block of the Month quilt with a Christmas theme.  April 2013 I finished Block 1; August 2013 Block 2 was complete and two others the pieced backgrounds complete.  Over the last 3 years I’ve slowly worked on the blocks until about 4 months ago when I decided I was going to get it done.

Tonight I finished all the embroidery, all the blanket stitch, all the piecing – whew!  Quilting & a few button embellishments and it will be complete.

I considered myself a fairly decent quilter, but there is always rooms for improvement.  So a few things I learned:

• Iron-on interfacing:  I have this spider web awesome stuff I use when doing hand applique – I have no idea why I used a heavier interfacing for the applique work on this quilt.  The blanket stitch was time-consuming and difficult to push a needle through two layers of fabric and the interfacing.  Also with the main blocks I was turning the edge with the blanket stitch. When I finally reached the corners with the birds & scallops – I trimmed off the edge I had originally turned under.  It helped a  little bit. Lesson learned – avoid med/heavy weight iron-on interfacing for any hand or machine stitching – even if you are just trying to use up your stash.

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  You can see how smooth & flat the scallops are versus the border strip.

• Measure. Measure. Measure.  I tell clients all the time when it comes to borders to measure, measure, measure.  Another disadvantage of the interfacing – the scalloped edge stiffened the fabric where it had NO movement and so the border didn’t work well with the directions measurements.  I had to put an easing stitch along the entire edge of the border to ease it to fit the main blocks.  No gathers or puckers but time consuming.  The borders were made as a unit – difficult to adjust beforehand, but I probably could have figured it out if I had measured first. I’m working on another Block of the Month quilt – no embroidery or embellishments.  The directions call for measuring & squaring the smaller blocks withing the blocks as you go.  I wish this quilt had done that a bit more. Lesson learned: measure, measure, measure.
• And last of all – I really don’t like to do blanket stitch by hand.  I love to do needle turned hand applique, but not blanket stitch.  Blanket stitch with my machine – love it. Lesson learned: next quilt that calls for lots of blanket stitch – I will use the machine.

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Last but not least – leftovers!!! Several years back I made a quilt for a fundraiser – 

For almost 5 years I kept the leftover scraps together – because there were that many!  Recently I finally made a very scrappy baby quilt for my great niece.

Well I have the same dilemma –  guess I’ll wait for a Christmas baby?

I’ve kept pretty busy for the last several years – quilting, children, grandchildren, church, etc.  Recently I felt inspired to slow down.  I let my clients know that I was only scheduling 2 quilts a week versus the 5-7 I had been doing.  I was released from overseeing the children’s program in our church.  And I paused.

So for the last month I’ve been working in my gardens, tending my bees, playing my piano, studying my scriptures, finished embroidery on two shirts for my husband (last year’s Father’s Day gifts from my daughters), worked on a quilt I’ve been working on for about 3 years, traveled to Tacoma to visit my parents, attended my youngest daughter’s spring concerts, relaxed in the evenings with my husband, went strawberry picking with my grandchildren, and… done a few quilts.  And yes this was slowing down in my book.

I’m still waiting… I know the Lord has something coming around the corner, that he wanted to give me a chance to breathe.  In the meantime I’m enjoying the sun, my gardens and quilting.

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