Another finish .................

.................. but not all my work

 

I have a dear friend who also quilts - we met around 10 years ago as she was Louise's class teacher.  Somehow one day Louise let slip that I quilted.  She was a total beginner at that time and shyly approached me one day to ask for help when she was stuck.  Our friendship grew from there and her two young boys both have one of my quilts which I gave them when they were born.

 

She has had several health issues and with two young children and a part time teaching job has plenty on her hands which leaves little time for quilting.

 

Earlier in the summer she told me about a project she'd been working on for some time.  Her sister in law had asked for a quilt and had selected the fabric.  Leigh had made up all the blocks and assembled them into a quilt top - the fabric choices weren't hers and she found working with someone else's choice quite a challenge at times.  In sheer desperation of ever getting the project finished she tentatively asked me if I could possibly machine quilt it for her.

 

I happily agreed and we met up at the seaside for the afternoon half way between our homes so she could hand it over.

 

This is the end result

 

I have to say the fabric selection wouldn't have been my choice either and it felt very odd working on someone else's project. 

 

 
However complete it I did with a large all over meander in a lovely old gold coloured rayon thread which really shines.  I then carried blithely on and using the only piece of spare fabric large enough for the job I went right ahead and bound it too.  It was only after I'd completed the binding I did wonder if I'd been a bit presumptuous doing that part as she might have wanted to do the binding herself.  But thankfully she was just jolly glad to get it back completed to be able to give it to her sister in law albeit probably a couple of years too late for the intended special birthday.  Everyone happy all round.

Unlike a lot of you who quilt commercially, I don't usually quilt other people's work.  Does anyone else find it difficult to work on something in fabric they either wouldn't have chosen or they're not fond of I wonder?

Other than this I've been doing a lot of hand stitching hexagons - I know I've shown you this before but it is getting larger by the day.  I think I've got it about to the width I'd like so once I've finished the right hand row down I shall square if off to match the other side and then work on getting it to the desired length.

 

I've so enjoyed working on these tiny (1inch point to point) hexagons in this lovely Liberty Tana Lawn that I will be sad to complete this.  It is well travelled having accompanied me on at least two holidays to the Netherlands for starters.  I still have lots of the different florals left so I'm planning it's sister quilt to follow on but have bought yardage of plain lawn to act as contrast on my next project in black.  Now to look out a different layout but I'm being very strong and not letting myself get side tracked by that until this one is done and finished so it will be a wee while before that black fabric comes out of the package.