Love Buzzard's Crafts & Life

This past weekend when I was sewing the binding on the quilt for Christy, I made a decision that I hope will make my life simpler, or at least easier on my shoulder. I have found that quilting bed size quilts on the sewing machine is causing a lot of pain in my right shoulder. The physical therapist told me that it would take six months to a year to heal completely but I think mine is going for a year plus six months. Simple things like lifting my purse out of the car gives me a problem and some times I have to reach over with my left hand to pick it up. So my big decision—-I am not going to be doing any more quilts other than the ones for which I am committed. My niece asked for a queen size one and somehow I will get it made. I am going to be finding some EASY ways to quilt a queen size and not hurt my shoulder. And then I have all of those that Mom G left unfinished and of course I will have to finish those but there again I will find an easy way.

I know some people are asking why I don’t just hand quilt but that is not my thing. I did hand quilting when I was a very young girl and learned then that I do not like to hand quilt. In fact all the years that I was making my own clothes, I hated doing the handwork. Even though I greatly dislike doing hand sewing, I LOVE doing hand embroidery. But to me that is an entirely different animal.

I never seem to learn from experience and I proved this New Year’s Eve at the wedding of Wes and Misty when I opened my big mouth and asked if they would like a quilt. Of course they said yes. Yesterday afternoon after I made my decision to not make any more quilts, I went to visit Wes’s mom and asked her opinion about making them a wall hanging instead of a quilt and she thought that would be fine. I am always getting myself in a bind, or at least my big mouth gets me in one. I really hate to back out on the quilt but that is preferable to constant pain in my shoulder. In fact when I asked Joyce to ask Chrissie what she would like for me to make her for a wedding present, I was thinking wall hanging, table runner with placemats, tablecloth, and the like. Joyce said that Chrissie did not even stop to think but immediately said, “a quilt.” Now how can I refuse? Making a quilt for her is a little different for she is my niece and I love her dearly. Wes was Brian’s best friend in high school and was in my Cub Scout and Boy Scout troops but that is still different than a niece. At least that is what I keep telling myself trying to justify not making a quilt for him. This weekend I am going to talk with Wes and Misty and see how they feel about a mini quilt as compared to a queen sized one. Knowing me I may just end up making them a quilt after all. Brian said something to me one time that I am finding is more true as the years go by, he said I was wishy-washy in making decisions and when he said that he was just a teenager.

The quilt shown below was made in 1996 for Shasta, the daughter of a friend.  What I was doing at the time was making a quilt for all the kids that were getting married and were friends of Scott or Brian and the parents were friends of mine.  After two more weddings I quickly changed my mind and started buying wedding gifts.  This quilt is full size to be used with a dust ruffle, however the owner displays it on the wall. Her mom told me the other day that the husband took the quilt down and was using it as cover on the sofa while watching TV but Shasta quickly told him to hang it back up and that it was not to be used to keep him warm.

The couple and hearts are all machine appliquéd and the ‘arch’ is done with decorative stitches on the sewing machine. The heart in the center has the names of the bride and groom and the date of the wedding in addition to five lines from the wedding vows. I do not know about the bride but I do know that the mom wanted the quilt on display at the reception so she attached ribbons and hung it. Needless to say it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to see it displayed in such a prominent spot. The photograph is not very clear but the colors are burgundy and forest green with a cream background.

If I do make a wall hanging for Wes and Misty then it will be similar to the center of this quilt but it will not have all the hearts around the outside but will have two or three narrow borders or maybe small hearts.. As I have been writing this post I have also been thinking of the large amount of time that it will take to satin stitch with the machine around the couple and all those hearts, even fairly small ones. Maybe I better think up an easy way to quilt NOW and go with a queen-sized quilt for Wes and Misty. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 @ 9:46 PM on the category Just Life, Quilting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.