Finally finished

I think most quilters have a pile of unfinished projects, unfinished for one reason or another.  This one was in my collection.  I finished the top back in 1999 – that’s a long time ago.  It started as a block of the month project to learn how to do needle turn applique.  Some of the blocks were made with freezer paper templates but many were simply basted down and turned under with the needle.  Before it was quilted one could see my applique stitches and it was pretty easy to pick out the very first block with it’s larger stitches and awkward curves.  I quickly improved and the subsequent blocks have smaller stitches and smooth curves.  The border corner blocks were adapted from four of the center designs which are all part of the “Through Grandmother’s Window” series published by Piece O’ Cake Designs.

The completed top, including the picket fence border languished all these years because I thought, with all the handwork, it should be hand quilted.  I didn’t want to do it myself, nor did I have a good source to have it done.  Add to that the expense – it is double bed size – and there it sat… all these years.  I finally decided to just have it machine quilted and be done.  All that work shouldn’t be sitting in a pile of unfinished projects!  So I contacted long-arm quilter Janet Block of Stone House Quilting in Rutland, VT and got into her queue.  She finished it in January.  I have plans to hang it in several shows and then to use it on a guest room bed upstairs.