Many Thanks

In the life of a quilter one gets very used to the reactions of people when you give them a quilt. They are either blase about it and you wonder why you bothered OR they are blown away by your kindness, let alone the awesomeness of the quilt itself. But very rarely does the quilter get to be on the other side of that relationship.

I've been there once before, when my SIL gave The Monster's baby quilt. It's pretty cool (the feeling and the quilt).

At Quilt Market, however, I got that feeling twice. And even though I'm friends with quilters I hardly expected it. To be fair, the quilts weren't for me. They are Nikolai's quilts.

The first one came from Rashida. Amanda and I ran into her on the show floor. We were on our way to the Generation Q booth, to say hi to the folks there. Rashida joined us for the chat. There we were in the booth, chatting away and admiring the ever rotating display of quilts when I was handed a quilt. Made with linen, some solids, and Cloud 9's Monsterz line, it's the sweetest baby quilt. I was admiring it when Rashida told me it was for Nicky. I'll admit it, I lost it and was gushing like a total geek. So, so sweet.

(BTW, more details on the quilt in the premiere print issue of Generation Q.)

We kept trying to get a picture of Rashida with Nicky. It turns out someone was always crying...

Then, on our last night together Amanda and I retreated to the hotel room. We sat chatting as I nursed the baby and we signed bookplates. After the energy and crowds of Market it was nice to finally have some time to reflect and be together. It was, after all, only the second time we'd been together. And she presented Nikolai with an awesome quilt. She knows me so well that the design was perfect, beyond it being a slab quilt. In writing the book we always pushed each other and always responded. Maybe she didn't mean the symbolism, but she put purple in it and it is all solids. That accounts for one push from me and one from her.

And now, my beautiful crazy boy has some gorgeous love to cuddle with that come from dear friends. He's got no choice, that kid, he's the son of a quilter, surrounded by quilters, and buried in quilts.

Binding, Binding, Binding

Lest you think I'm not getting anything quilty done, here is a pile of bindings. Two of these are out of the book and one is a precious baby quilt. One hand finished - in progress. One machine binding - in progress. One machine bound and ready for it's debut.

I'll admit, I can do machine binding, but I'm not a fan of it. I find them stiff and it somehow feels wrong to me to have that seam on the front. I just prefer the look of a hand finished binding, for my quilts. You can't however, knock the speed of doing it by machine and sometimes you just need to get things done. And there is a lot of satisfaction in getting a quilt from squared up to completely bound in only a few hours. There is a lot of enjoyment in sitting and stitching in rhythm too.

I guess I'm not one to judge.

100 Days

She went through my snippets jar, picking out 100 unique pieces of fabric.

She trimmed them into relative squares and rectangles.

She sat on my lap in front of the machine.

She learned how to line up the edges of the fabric, place them, and drop the needle.

She guided them through the machine while I worked the pedal. Or we switched jobs and played Red Light. Green Light.

She placed the rows and sewed some more.

She celebrated 100 Days of school.

She celebrates her craft. Here it covers her, but more often she covers her baby brother in this special quilt.

Or,

She fights with her sister over it.

To a T quilt

To a T Quilt

72'' by 72''

Block designed for 99 Modern Blocks.

Repeating the T design for the back. With some very, very girly floral fabric and a shot cotton.

Pink binding. Just for fun.

My sunshiny quilting design. Shows up great on the back. Really happy using the Aurifil 50 wt thread for quilting. First time of many to come.

This quilt is in heavy rotation already. Keeping me cozy as I steal the girls' bed for a quick nap just days before baby boy arrived. Keeping me warm as I ward off the chills of a fever from a bad cold. Keeping the Evil Genius snuggled as she works through the stress of having of a new brother.

Now that's a successful quilt.