Custom Quilt, my first

Goodbye Sharon................

Sharon, a member of our Stitchers Group is moving to Delaware ....... so, of course, we had to make her a quilt. We searched and thought until we found the perfect pattern. Sew Much To Do, by Michele Scott in McCall's Quilting, February 2000. I made the doggie tote for the quilt but now Sharon can use it for grocery shopping and even better visiting quilt shops up North.

All the members of our Wednesday Stitchers Group made a spool block. The featherweight in the middle was perfect .... you see Sharon brings her featherweight to sew on each week.

This was my very first custom quilting job. A few facts:

166 tie offs and burying of threads
21 (yes 21) thread changes ......

20 buttons sewed onto the jar

24-30 hours of quilting (and frogging)

bias binding hand sewing to the back 3 1/2 hours

40 x 40 size

rolled quilt back/forth probably a zillion times

I really didn't know where to start because I'm a pantograph quilter only. I asked my friend Irene, Deb, Marlies, members of APQS chat, MQResource forum and Delphi Quilting Passion friends for help. Man what a great bunch of friends on all the boards ...... Heidi from APQS even sent me a PDF with ideas (thanks Heidi). With all their help I finally got up the nerve to go for it.

First I layed clear vinyl over the quilt, using white board pens I marked the ideas I gathered from everyone. I did this because I've never done custom quilting .... it did help me alot. Once I decided what to do then I went for it.

The quilting took hours. I lost track but I'm guessing somewhere between 24 to 30 hours. One of my problems was I really didn't know where to start. Everyone said to do the SID (stitch in the ditch) first. Unfortunately I had never done SID so I decided to do more like an inside outline. I used my stitch regulator and my Dainty Ditcher ruler.

To make the fabric resemble thread I did lines back/forth. By the way when the spool is laying on it's side the lines must go up/down otherwise you'll be frogging.

The black fabric had gold curlie q's. I found a feather that I traced/cut out of freezer paper, using school chalk I chalked in 2 feathers on the machine. The machine represents a featherweight and Sharon always brings her featherweight machine to sewing group.

The offwhite background fabric (Thimbleberries) was done in a loopy meander. Inside the button jar I did just a meander (my first meander) and lines on the lid. Buttons were sewed on after it was quilted .... yes it was hard as I didn't want the thread to show on the back.

I wanted to use like a heart 'n' hand idea for the outside 4 inch border. I traced my grandson's hand again on freezer paper, chalked the hand randomly then freehanded loops and hearts to connect with the hand.

Our label ...... everyone will sign their name at the bottom.


Well here it is ...... all pieced and quilted. Click on the photo to enlarge.

Sharon and her quilt.

Sharon we will miss you.

Thank you to everyone who helped me with suggestions and especially for the encouragement.