Turkey Tracks: June 15, 2011
Prudy’s Quilt
My friend Prudy Netzorg is incredibly generous!
She gave me two quilt tops last fall: a smaller child’s quilt featuring dogs and a lap quilt of bright, lively colors. (Prudy has a wonderful eye for color.)
I loved both, but knew that she, too, loved one of them especially, but had just lost energy around finishing it.
I had gotten the long-arm just before Prudy’s generosity, and there is a HUGE learning curve for long-arms. So, Prudy and I agreed that we would go together to buy backs for her tops, and I would pay for those in return for using the quilts as learning tools. Prudy would bind them and give the little one to a local fund-raising charity for auction and would keep the other.
I tried a pantograph pattern on the smaller one–and learned a lot–to include that I didn’t especially care for narrow patterns. They repeat too quickly. I did think the pattern looked like a dog’s footprint and a group of balloons rising–both motifs in the print.
I just finished the larger, bright one. I think it mostly came out looking pretty good, but it is not perfect, and I like perfect. I did, however, learn a lot, especially about using templates.
Here’s the quilt finished without the binding, which Prudy will do. I remember a hot pink binding…
Here’s a detail of the border. I special ordered a hot pink thread, which I think came out nicely.
Here’s another detail:
Another thing I learned is that it is necessary to take a picture of the whole quilt or draw a quilting pattern–especially with a pieced quilt like this one. Once the quilt is rolled up on the back roller–which happens as you quilt the length of it–you can’t see what you did at the other end. I got confused on which way I quilted the pieced blocks, for instance. I put the loops on the pinwheel blocks in two different places. And, at one end, I forgot what I did at the other with two blocks.
I did walk away with a new comfort level with templates, and the quilt is lively and fun.
Thanks Prudy!!
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