Bright College Quilt and First Customer Quilt

Yesterday, it was wonderful to let the floor guy do his sawing and hammering thing downstairs while I did my quilting thing upstairs. I chose to get back in the swing with this very cheerful Wolfpack Stack and Slash quilt, shown draped over the machine. The topper is a friend of mine from our days at North Carolina State University. We had talked on the phone several times before she showed up at my door with her first two quilts...and we recognized each other! This will be my fourth quilt for her, and the fifth is pinned on the frame.


Once again I was able to use designs from the book, 250 Continuous Line Quilting Designs by Laura Lee Fritz to add a few surprises to this overall meander. She had a few fox and coyote designs that I decided could pass for wolves. Here is a view of a howling wolf from the back.



I also wrote the word Wolfpack in one area in cursive. This quilt top had so many busy fabrics that there were not too many areas where any special designs would show.

One down, two more to go for Karen. Next up is a T-shirt quilt. This one should be very special. Her husband has participated in many missions to repair homes for the underprivileged through a church group. Each year there was a T-shirt for the volunteers. Some of the shirts bear evidence of the hard work done by this team. I have already made some patterns on Golden Threads paper of hammers, saws, wrenches and nails from the same book by Laura Lee Fritz. I have never actually quilted a T-shirt quilt, although my very first customer quilt in 2003 had a little of everything.

I expect there were some T-shirt blocks on there. I bought my Gammill from Linda Taylor in Texas, mainly so I could get the two free days of classes with her. Well, those two free days cost me about a thousand dollars by the time I bought plane tickets, rented a car, and paid for room and board and an extra day's class. Anyway, here was this package sitting on my front porch when I got home. This quilt was to be used as a chuppah, or canopy, for a wedding ceremony, then as a wall quilt. The bride's mother had elicited blocks from family and friends. They included beads, photo transfers, artwork, buttons, and yes, chains, watches and jewelry. I had to get right on the phone to Linda Taylor while she still remembered me and ask how I could quilt this thing without throwing out the timing on my machine as I hit a chunk of metal!

It actually came out kind of pretty, and I'm sure it was a wonderful and meaningful gift for the bride and groom. Don't look too closely at the quilting, but I guess it wasn't too bad for a newbie.