The Quilt Files, Episode 1

This blog is a wonderful way to avoid starting Chapter 17, I've discovered. Unfortunately, now it's exerting a pressure of its own. If I haven't put something in the blog for a couple of days, I feel guilty. My invisible audience is clamoring for more! If I don't create new entries, they'll never come back! If I can't write something in the blog, my own personal procrastination vehicle, how pathetic is that? It's bad enough I'm avoiding Chapter 17, which is something productive that could actually be published some day (soon, ohpleaseohpleaseohplease), but now I can't think of something to blather about in my blog! If I do more than one vacation photo a week, I'll run out quickly. I've gone through all three cats, plus the shelter. Nationals are over. I can't read more than one classic every couple of weeks, and I don't want to blog about reading science fiction or Stephen King, that's not very impressive.

I know! I will introduce a new feature to The Blathering: The Quilt Files. I can blather about projects I've done, complete with pictures. If I limit it to once a month, I might last the rest of the year. Maybe it will inspire me to finish that last row on the quilt I'm making for my niece (if I don't decide to keep it for myself, heheheheh).

So here is Episode 1 in The Quilt Files: My first finished project, completed December 2002. It's actually a lap quilt, about 35" square. I had purchased some charm packs (4.5" square) featuring this family of fabrics for another project. That project required red, orange, yellow, green, dark blue, and purple fabrics. These were the colors left over: black, white, pink, light blue, and maroon. I figured, easy peasy: piece together the squares, add borders, and voila! A handmade Christmas gift for Grandma! (They always appreciate handmade, or are too kind to say they don't.) The piecing took only a weekend, and then it took several weeks of quilting by hand to finish the project. It's hard to tell from the photo, but I alternated diamonds and 8-pointed stars in each of the squares, stitched in the ditches of the small border, and quilted diamonds in the big border. Considering I started with leftover scraps in weird colors (and I tried several arrangements before settling on this one), I thought it turned out fairly nice.

Of course, Grandma was thrilled to have a handmade gift. When she left her home for hospice care, it was one of the things she took with her. My aunt says that when Grandma passed last December, she was using my little quilt. I like to think she spared a thought for me that last day.

Now the quilt is back with me, hanging off my writing chair. When it's not too hot out, I like to wear it in my lap. It's warm and cozy and the cats like to sit on it. And now I'm the one who looks at it and gets warm memories of a loved one. Not a bad result for my first quilting project.