I am so happy to have this quilt finished and ready for use during our first winter here in Napa. My husband requested this quilt during an impromptu trip to the quilt store. We picked out all the fabrics that very same day – a combination of Jacobean flowers and stripes. That was such a long time ago. The whole ensemble – the quilt-top, pieced backing, trimmed batting and the variegated thread I was going to use for quilting – all sat on the shelf forever. I was too afraid to quilt it because of the large queen size.
Finally, a few months ago, I pulled it out one rainy Friday, basted it and started quilting it the very same day. Although I had a fantastic neck pain afterwards, I managed to finish quilting it by the end of that weekend. It didn’t turn out to be that difficult to move half of the quilt through the narrow neck of my sewing machine. I didn’t roll up the quilt, I bunched it up and pushed or pulled as needed. The quilt was too heavy for my machine and that affected the stitch lengths at faster speeds. Once I started quilting at a slower speed, it become much smoother.
Once the machine quilting was done, I started hand quilting each of the 42 squares. I tend to overwork my wrist through various activities during the day, so I have restricted myself to only one hour of hand quilting per day. So much of my life is governed by the clock, I really don’t like to rush when I am working on creative things. It takes however long it takes. Working at the slower pace is relaxing too and my wrist doesn’t hurt afterwards. I finished the last square a few weeks ago, and sewed on the brown binding over the next few days. Or was it a couple of weeks? Don’t really remember!
We went to historic Sonoma downtown last Friday, and the little state park was the perfect place to take a picture of this quilt. Just in time too, because the rain came right after we got in the car and it hasn’t stopped since!
-Soma
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