Quilted and Bound!

When the modem on my computer went up in smoke about three weeks ago and I was without the internet for seven days, I made a quilt top from a free pattern offered by the Blackbird Design gals on their blog which I wrote about here.  I was really pleased with the way it turned out but I was in no rush to have it quilted.

Every Wednesday afternoon, a bunch of us get together to work on whatever handwork strikes our fancy.  Nancy (no blog) is an amazing quilter and about 6 months ago, purchased a longarm machine and has been practising and taking classes whenever and wherever she can.  Every week she brings in one or two quilts that she has machine quilted and each time she never ceases to amaze us.

Two weeks ago, I brought in my Lemoyne Star pieced top for show and tell and one thing led to another and to make a long story short, Nancy offered to quilt it for me.  She asked me if I had any preferences and all I said was that I envisioned feather wreaths in the connecting blocks and that she had ‘carte blanche’ to do whatever she wanted with the rest.  I told her that I was in no rush which was fine by her as she was leaving for France this past Friday for a ten day vacation.

I actually didn’t expect to even see Nancy this past Wednesday and she took us all by surprise when she walked in with my quilt neatly folded on a hanger and covered with a clear plastic protective sleeve.  I was flabbergasted by what little I could see of it.  Nancy and another gal carefully removed it from the hanger and held it up for all to see.  The tears started streaming down my face.

Look at the quilting.  Isn’t it amazing?  Nancy has been doing this for only 6 months and this is all done free hand.  Yes, she ‘drives’ the machine but all the designs are of her own creation.  None are computer generated.

Nancy told me that it took her 4 days to complete the quilting.  I can believe it because there’s not one square inch that doesn’t have some form of quilting on it.

This is the reverse side nearest the binding.  Click on the photo to enlarge it.  Amazing, huh?

Every point on each star has a feather quilted in it!

I finished sewing the binding on it last night then washed and dried it.  Nancy used a very low loft wool batting and it came out of the washer and dryer as soft as butter.  She was a bit concerned that it might be a little stiff from all the quilting but I believe the answer was the wool batting.  From here on in, I’ll never use anything but wool.

I am thrilled to bits and I just can’t wait to see what she does with my next one!

Happy stitching!

Kaaren ♥