Heavy post warning. If you care to meander with me through my quiltings, I thank you. I had several quilt tops finished but as is often the case, I put those aside knowing the hard work ahead of me to finish it with the 3 layers. My friend Yvonne, bless her heart, took pity on my poor quilting shoulders and hands, and she did the "Cat" quilt on her longarm. There is such a quality about a quilt that has been longarmed. You can see Yvonne's work here. The little CAT quilt is a joy to me with all the cute little cat designs which are so simple and done in almost a 'red work' simple stitching. The embroidery CD for the cats was a gift from my friend Judi. I bought the cat fabric at the annual Phoenix Quilt, Craft and Sewing Festival which I have attended for at least 15 years.
At the Quilt show last year I purchased several Embroidery Design CD's. One was a Paris France theme with really cute cute designs. I embroidered the blocks, and then pulled out the big fat packs of ribboned "fat quarters' and added sashings around the quilt block...and then those were all combined with black and white polka dot sashings and a strip of bright and colorful floral fabric. I love this quilt. This was done in a "quilt as you go" process which is really easy at the start since each block is finished. The final process is, of course, to sew the blocks all together using strip sashing, and then as the rows are completed, the rows are attached to each other to complete the quilt. This process is a shoulder-jolt to me. I love sewing and I can spend hours hunched over the machine, arms up on the plate, pushing, shoving, pulling and tugging the fabrics together and as the quilt grows, the struggle increases. Often my shoulders rebel and I cannot lift my arms above shoulder level but that passes after the quilting process is finished.
Have a wonderful day.
