Good morning, friends! I am shocked to be able to share this finish with you today, because I was fiercely procrastinating coming back to it. I decided to load it up on the frame, fire up the long arm machine and JUST DO IT. Behold, my friend Marybeth's oldest UFO, a hand pieced sampler quilt that she started in 1984 for her (now adult) son's "Big Boy Bed." When Marybeth showed me the blocks a year or two ago I begged her to finish the project and promised that, if she put the blocks into a quilt top, I would custom quilt it for her.
Marybeth's circa 1984 Sampler Quilt, Custom Quilting Completed |
Not gonna lie; this project was a challenge for me. I've quilted hundreds and hundreds of quilts with edge to edge, allover quilting, but less than a dozen custom quilts on my long arm machine. This one was a combination of digital computerized designs, hand guided ruler work quilting, and free motion quilting, and I quickly realized that I have a lot to learn when it comes to quilting computerized designs in borders and sashing. Knowing that this quilt was really special to Marybeth and irreplaceable, I got into my own head too much with the Analysis Paralysis... I am ashamed to confess that I have had this quilt for EIGHT MONTHS before finally finishing it and sending it back to Marybeth!
Wish I'd Used More Contrasting Thread |
I've got a lot of Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda notes for this quilt. Like, I wish I'd used the pale straw yellow thread in that green dotted fabric patch in the photo above, so you could see the quilting motifs in the "lawn" patch. I wish I'd done a better job of keeping the amount of quilting more consistent throughout the quilt, too -- notice how the quilting lines in the red and blue block below the house are so much farther apart than in the house block, for instance. If this had been my own quilt, I would have gone back in and added more quilting to the red and blue block to solve that issue, but I know that Marybeth prefers the look and feel of LESS quilting and I'm already worried that I may have "overquilted" it for her preferences.