Sunday, November 2, 2014

A little late...and teaching old dogs new tricks...

Several weeks ago I posted pictures of a few quilts I have had the honour of quilting for my wonderful customers and finished with a little tease...

At the end of that post I posted a picture of my lone entry in the Hamilton Quilters' Guild show.


 Pink Baskets hanging at the show

I call it Pink Baskets and though I'm not much of a 'pink' person, I had bought several yards of the border fabric at a now long forgotten (and closed) quilt store in Owen Sound while I still lived in that area...so pre 1994. It obviously spoke to me as I bought more than my usual 'on spec' amount...so it sat languishing in my stash for 20 or more years.  The print has a very traditional feel to it and I love basket blocks and on-point settings, so I got out my laptop and quickly devised a setting using a traditional basket block in my EQ7. My main interest was to create some nice open white space for some fancy quilting along with using stash, and paying attention to my piecing to make it worthy of the fancy stitching.

I have been quilting for the better part of over 40 years at this point and though I have taken classes, read many books and blogs on quilting, watched lots of internet resources, and learned as I went, I feel we can get a bit sloppy over time....we can always learn more while we sharpen our skills even if it's 'only' for ourselves.

I finished the top last summer and all of the pink prints were obtained by 'shopping' my stash. The basket blocks were quick and easy to make while still making sure all points matched and were nice and pointy. Most of them were made evenings at the table in our trailer while camping at Rock Point Provincial Park. Putting it together had to wait until we were home as a bigger space was required to lay it out than is available in the trailer....and then it sat...for a year...in the line-up of personal quilts...not quilted. S to try to rid myself of some of my own UFO's I figured the only way was to enter the guild show, but the 'working for a paycheck'  jobs, summer, family and assorted other stuff all conspired against me and it was completed 'just in time'....





 A few detail shots and a few of the back....



A fun challenge and an exercise in teaching this 'old dog' some new tricks which in the end should benefit me and my lovely customers who entrust their beautiful creations to me for quilting.

Cheers

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