In My Garden

You have seen this quilt before on the frame and coming off the frame. Now it has been been completed and professionally photographed and juried into the PIQF show in Santa Clara CA. I am excited about that as I have not had a quilt I thought would be good enough for competition for several years. This quilts journey has been long, beginning with a group of students pushing for a once a month workshop. We ended up with 12 blocks and for awhile I could not imagine what I would do with mine. Ultimately, I decided on a center medallion with the look of a tree of life and a narrow border. I patterned the center after a vintage quilt picture sent to me by my friend Karen. I found the set in a book by Deloris Hinson called American Graphic. It took awhile to find and decide on the sashing and binding fabric. I quilted off and on for a couple of years, more off than on. the first glitch came when I decided to help our daughter Kelly when her daughter was almost two to take care of our granddaughter while her mom went back to school. The quilt went with me but no actual quilting was done. It might have had something to do with playing with a two year old?? I was about one third done when we made the decision to move to MO. Moving settling in and just getting used to the new situation ate up a lot of time and next the thing I knew five more years had passed and the quilt was like a millstone around my neck. My friends were making up excuses for why I was still not finished. A few even told me I didn't have to finish! I think that was a wake up call. I finally rose to the challenge and it is done!!! Will I echo quilt twice around all motifs again? Not likely.