A quilt for Frances

Two summers ago I decided to make a quilt for my husband's secretary for Christmas.  I found some beautiful bright floral prints that I wanted to use.  I started piecing it together and when I was finished with the top I stood back, looked at it and cried tears of sorrow!  It was SO crooked and there was no possible way to repair it!  The design itself was beautiful but the execution was not on-spot.  I was devestated.

A few weeks later we took our family vacation to Illinois and, to make a long story short, I found the perfect fabric for Frances.  My husband is a minister and these are the fabrics I chose.  (The blocks are religious sayings).

These squares were found as a bolt of fabric that I cut out.  I had such a fun time contructing this but it was a bit of a challenge because the squares weren't all the same size, which I didn't realize until we got home from our vacation.  So what I did was I put boarders on the squares so I could trim them all down to the same size.

Now onto the backing. I found this gorgeous print that was the same theme of the blocks: religious sayings, creme color with music notes (Frances sings in the choir too).  It was just perfect.  Again I didn't realize until we got back home that I had not bought enough.  So I had to modify it.  I found some solid green fabric that I could maybe add to the sides.  Again, still not enough.  So I found some dark brown paterned fabric that I could add.  Finally enough fabric!  And then I had this brilliant idea to put it together so the back looked like a cross and I LOVE how it turned out.

So this quilt took a little while longer than expected but I was extremely pleased with the finished product.  When I handed it to Frances for Christmas I said "I'm having a hard time giving this to you!" (She understood why). 

As a side note I free-form quilted the quilt with my trusty Kenmore sewing machine.

My Quilting Journal

For as long as I can remember I've liked to write.  In middle school I began writing poetry then in high school, college, and beyond I did a lot of journaling.  It feels good to be able to express my thoughts, feelings and ideas on paper.  I have two "Mommy Journals" for my two boys.  They are like "letters to my child" to give to them when they are grown.  I started both journals before they were born, writing to them about the anticipation of the first day I would met each of them.  (This takes the place of a baby book).  Because of my love of writing I knew I would be able to convey to them more feelings and emotions than I would in a baby book.

Anyway, back to journaling.  A few years ago I walked into a fabric store and saw a book called "My Quilting Journal" so it was only natural that I buy it.  But as I leafed through it I noticed that there was not enough space for me.  When I write I can fill up pages!  (I'm not one of those 2-sentence kind of people).  But with my creative juices flowing I thought... How easy would it be to find a journal with blank pages and then label them myself?  So that's what  did.

(I just LOVE label makers!)

Some of the sections I created were taken from the original book such as the finished dimension of the quilt.  But then I added extra categories such as swatches of the fabric and where I bought them from, photos and any other comments about the quilt.

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I LOVE old quilts and I think each and every one has a story behind it.  So hopefully one day when someone stumbles upon my quilts they will have a story to go with it (provided they can find this journal too!)

Happy quilting and happy journaling everyone!