Well, that was March and now it is almost May. My life of "retirement" has taken on quite a different route than I had imagined. Last October, we traveled from our home in North Carolina to Orlando, Florida, to attend a niece's wedding and enjoy a mini-reunion with my husband's sibs. From there we traveled to Louisiana to visit with our youngest son and his family for a few months, including celebrating the incoming of the New Year. We no sooner returned home mid-February and just a week or so later received a phone call from my sister stating she desperately needed my help. She is the primary care-giver of our elderly father, and was facing a health challenge of her own. She was scheduled to have surgery the following Tuesday. We left the next afternoon following her phone call to me, and traveled to her home in Missouri.
My sister's surgery was a miracle - a huge success which even surprised her doctor. I have continued to stay with her through her recovery time and also to be on "Dad Duty" while she and her husband take a short vacation to visit their youngest daughter's family and see their brand new grand-baby.
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| Half Square Triangles laid out on living room floor |
While staying in Missouri, I took on a new challenge. My sister is an avid seamstress and quilter, and encouraged me to make a quilt. Now, prior to this, and although a seamstress of sorts myself, I had always shied away from any sort of quilting. I had erroneously thought that to make such a thing would be a life-time project. She smiled and gave me fabric squares she won at a drawing. She taught me, mentored me, stood by me and walked all the steps right along with me.
When the fabric squares were presented to me, I, at first, could not think how these colors would all come together--pinks, oranges, purples, blues, greens in the same batch--not what I would have chosen. But I kept on and came up with a plan. I made the HST (half-square triangles), as shown above. I learned how "to square". Oh, did I ever learn how to square! And ironing every seam is one of the most important steps. I learned all about precision and matching seams...and tearing out and redoing.
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| Brown fabric for sashes and backing |
To further encourage me and have some fun, my sister took me to visit the Missouri Star Quilt Company. While there, I discovered the fabric I wanted to use as sashes and the backing, a beautiful brown laced with black scrolling.
I learned how to treat the fabric - washing, drying, stretching, ironing, and finally measuring and cutting for the sashes. As the sashes were sewn to the blocks, the quilt was transformed before my eyes. A beautiful blending of bright, cheerful colors warmed by the brown.
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| Sashes sewn in and border added |
I added the brown border. Then, with my sister's suggestion, and using left over fabric from the HSTs, I made a border of colors. Again, surprised at how this added to the magic of the fabric picture I was creating.
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| Machine Quilting |
We went to a Quilting Day at her church. I met some wonderful, fun "girls". They all brought their sewing machines, and quilting projects. This group gets together once a month. They help each other, make suggestions, enjoy each other's company and laugh a lot. One of them assisted us with the placing of the backing, matting and quilt top together with spraying on the basting glue. And, now I was all ready to start the actual quilting process. During the process of sewing the squares, blocks, sashes and borders, I tried to figure how I would be able to get this quilted - where, who, time, and cost. I never imagined that I could do this myself, using a home sewing machine. I thought this would be for small projects, such as table runners, wall hangings, and the such. So, here I am, much to my surprise, quilting real bed-size quilt at my sister's home, using her home sewing machine. Imagine my surprise!
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| Quilting design on border |
I learned the technique of using a stenciled pattern, applied to the fabric by a marking pen. The ink disappears when the fabric is ironed. I traced a stencil design on all the sashes and brown borders, as shown to the left, and then stitched it by machine.
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| Finished with matching throw pillow cover |
I saw a beautiful fabric picture come together before my very own eyes. I cannot express my excitement when the final stitch was made and the quilt was finished, including a hand-embroidered label (shown below), and a matching throw pillow cover. How proud I am to display them.
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| Hand embroidered label |
I am now so ready to take on another quilting project.
While working on this quilt, I have been impressed at how like my life this is. God chose the Pattern - His only Son, for me to be likened to. God chose the design and the colors ( I may wonder from time to time how the colors He chose will ever come together). He added sashes and borders to expand my life experiences and broaden my spectrum. Everything He chose for me was for my good. Seams have had to be ripped out - that was my doing in the distorting of His design for me. He had to iron and re-iron the seams to straighten out the creases and wrinkles I had made in resistance to His working on me. Only as the fabric yielded to my touch, my gentle pull, my care, stenciling, sewing and the putting of it all together, it became a beautiful finished quilt, and to me a precious treasure; and so my life, as I yield to Him, will become all that He has purposed for me.
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