First and Last Quilt

This is a close-up of the last quilt top I've made. It's currently at the quilter. It's called Jewel Box and is from a Pat Speth workshop I took in May 2008. I'm entering these pictures in the "Parade of Quilts" at www.camilleroskelley.typepad.com and at www.lavieenrosie.typepad.com

Here's the full view. I'll be giving this quilt to my neice, Brittany for her high school graduation. She's waiting patiently for it since she graduated in May. I'm really anxious to see what it will look like quilted. The last quilt that I fully completed (quilting and all) is pictured further down in my blog. It's the quilt I made for my mother-in-law, Carol. This is my first quilt. I made it (with lots of help from my mom) when I was 8 years old. It's a four patch and has lots of scraps from clothes my mom made for me. I got bored with sewing these blocks really quickly but she encouraged me to continue. She put the quilt together and machine quilted it for me. She really wanted me to make more blocks to make it bigger because it was going in my hope chest (remember those?) and she knew I would need a bigger quilt when I got married. I told her that my husband and I would surely sleep in separate twin beds (I had watched a lot of "I Love Lucy") and that twin size would be big enough for me. (Don't know what the husband was supposed to cover up with in his twin bed!)

It's been used a lot (mostly by my kids when they were small--they slept in twin beds), but I've finally stopped using it so it won't get any more worn. It has a few blocks that are completely threadbare. The one thing that has not changed over the past 40-something years is my love for red. It's still my favorite color.

One important thing I've learned about quilting (for myself, anyway) is that accuracy is important, but not to the point of driving myself crazy. I want to continue to enjoy what I do, and if it becomes a chore, it's not fun anymore. I want to always have fun with quilting.