Labor of Love

[dixie_belle]

I finally finished my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. I'm not going to say how long I've been working on it because I would just embarrass myself. I finished it yesterday. It will fit a king sized bed and is entirely done by hand. Each piece was cut out by hand (no rotary cutting here), and sewed together by hand to make the top. The quilting was all hand done. I am so happy to have that finished. I just thought I'd share some pictures.

 

[chandab]

You are a braver soul than I; Grandmother's Flower Garden is one pattern I won't be making, and definitely wouldn't do hand work (I'm not that patient). your's has turned out lovely. Congrats on completing such a lovely project.

 

[Mona]

WELL worth the wait...it is BEAUTIFUL!!!

 

[Lil Eowyn]

Wow! Beautiful! Thanks for sharing =)

 

[dixie_belle]

Since I'm on a roll, I decided to start on a log cabin lap quilt. Learned a VERY important quilting lesson. With each block being made of 14 seperate pieces of fabric, it is really important to get each seam allowance EXACTLY the same. Otherwise, you get blocks of different sizes. I would have been done by now, except that I now have 7 blocks that are 7 1/2 inches instead of the 8 inches that I need. Sigh. And I know better, too. Sigh again.

 

[chandab]

Since I'm on a roll, I decided to start on a log cabin lap quilt. Learned a VERY important quilting lesson. With each block being made of 14 seperate pieces of fabric, it is really important to get each seam allowance EXACTLY the same. Otherwise, you get blocks of different sizes. I would have been done by now, except that I now have 7 blocks that are 7 1/2 inches instead of the 8 inches that I need. Sigh. And I know better, too. Sigh again.

How about continuing as you are and make all the blocks 7.5" and perhaps adding a nice border to cover the lost block size. As long as your consistant your quilt will turn out just fine. [Especially with log cabin where there are no points to lose as there are in star blocks and others with points.]

Or, are you saying some are 8 and some are 7.5?

 

[lucky seven]

That is a beautiful quilt! You are very talented to do everything by hand. Let us know how your log cabin comes out.

 

[dixie_belle]

I decided to bite the bullet and be careful and make 24 blocks, all 8 inches. I still have the smaller ones that I can use to make a wall hanging or some pot holders. I finally got all 24 blocks pieced and put them all together. Tomorrow I'll put a nice border on and get it all basted together. I still have to pick a quilting pattern. I think I'll do small stippling in the white strips and then some large quilt pattern in the darn sections. Possibly some something with rounded edges to blunt the straight lines.

 

[chandab]

Can't wait to see it.

 

[twister]

Your quilt is beautiful!!! I wouldn't have the patience to do it by hand.

 

[LaVern]

Oh, so pretty.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Really like the way you did the border. It sets off the "gardens" beautifully!

 

[dixie_belle]

The idea for the border was that you are leaving the "garden" with the grass between the flowers and going into the "shade" under the trees. If you look closely (and I'm not really sure you will be able to see it) the quilting pattern is a picket fence. I've just always had it in my mind to do it that way. At first I didn't like it, but I must admit that it is growing on me. And besides, I'm not going to redo it now!!!