Collin is my youngest son. He is just about to start his last year of college, and I’ve been promising him a new quilt since the beginning of his freshman year. He has a quilt that I made him when he was about 12 years old and only about 5’3″ tall. It fit him perfectly, at the time. He’s now about 6′ 2″! This quilt was not actually meant for him when I made it, but after I’d completed the top, he claimed it. Good thing he did, or it would probably have never been finished!
I’d never made anything completely out of solids, and I was fairly new to the Modern Quilt Guild movement when I started this one. I was like a dog with a bone, I tell ya! I was terribly excited to get it sewn together at one of our guild sew ins! As per the instructions, the quilt was uneven at the bottom and needed to be trimmed. My husband has helped me to square up many backings over the past 8 years, so he knows what he’s doing when he’s supposed to hold the corners together. He also has the attention span of a gnat! Armed with a fresh blade in my rotary cutter, I sliced off the uneven parts on the quilt top. When he handed me the end of the top that he was holding, I saw that he hadn’t lined up the corners! After feeling like I was going to toss my cookies, cussing a blue streak, and breaking down in tears, the quilt went into the closet. And there is stayed. On one of his trips home, Collin was poking around in my “quilt tops to be quilted” closet. He asked if he could have this poor, unevenly trimmed, neglected quilt. I showed him how awfully crooked it was, but he didn’t care. What he cared about was the fact that it was long! After many more months of nagging, I finally decided to see what could be done to salvage this project. Measure, mark, measure, mark and measure and mark again! I finally got the nerve to trim it again, and ended up losing about 6″! Not quite long enough now, I decided to add borders to it. Adding borders to quilts doesn’t seem to be the “thing to do” in modern quilting, but I tend to favor borders. For me, it’s like framing a picture. Besides, it added 10″ to this quilt! I finally got it quilted and the binding attached. My personal goal was to start the binding on the first night of the Olympics, and to finish it on the last night of the Olympics. Slow and steady, after all, wins the race! I put the last stitch in the binding, just as the closing ceremonies were ending last night. I’m pleased to say that when I hung the quilt on the fence this morning, I got a little chill! I’m so happy with it! I know where it looks crooked, but it’s not nearly as noticeable now that it’s quilted. It will be even less so, once it’s washed. I need to remember that! Had Collin not nagged the dickens outta me, it would probably still be in the closet, never to be finished. I would have robbed myself of the joy I felt this morning.
The quilt pattern is called City Scapes by Cherry House Quilts. The quilting pattern is called Geometric Path by Kirstin Hoftyzer, distributed through Digi-Tech. The thread is Superior Threads Omni, with Superior Threads So Fine in the bobbin. The batting is Hobbs 80/20.
The Creamsicle Cat 