About a year ago, my mother and I decided to make charm quilts for ourselves. Mom began by cutting two, 2 1/2" squares each of every fabric that we had our respective stashes. This took her quite some time as between the two of us, we had amassed over 1,200 fabrics! We were both surprised to learn this, and now that a year has passed since she began cutting, I can't help but wonder what the new total is.
Mom, being more disciplined than I, managed to get her top assembled over the past few months. My squares however, remain in a box waiting for some attention from me; I hope that they are patient as I have quite a few irons in the fire.
Last weekend, we loaded mom's top onto the long arm and yet again, produced an overall stipple pattern using a light, mint green thread. While quilting, I enjoyed spying the individual fabrics and trying to remember when and where they were purchased. I was surprised at how sharp my memory was, recalling the details of some purchases that were made over 25 years ago.
Mom selected a solid green backing fabric that made me nervous. I am still not completely confident with my long arm skills and a solid backing fabric is unforgiving when it comes to thread breaks and starts and stops. Much to my surprise and pleasure, we made it through the entire quilt without one thread break. This is a first for me. Also, having had some experience now with bobbin capacity, I was pleased that we were able to plan bobbin changes at opportune moments near the edges, where stopping and restarting is unnoticeable.
2 comments:
This is great! I'm in the process of downsizing my ample stash and have been cutting 2.5" squares before giving away some fabrics. My aim is to make a similar quilt. I wonder how you decided to asemble the quilt? Was it just random or did you have a plan>
It was completely random LouAnne. Best of luck with your quilt!
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