Inspired to finish

After reading Jane Brocket's latest book, The Gentle Art of Quiltmaking, I was inspired to haul out the quilt for Joan I started working on over a year ago and just finish it.

On Friday Sam, Marley and I went to a fabric store. I wanted a fabric to use to bind the quilt edges, and perhaps get a color other than off-white or white to use for the quilting stitches. There were several colors that would work well with the quilt, but I finally decided upon pink.

(While we were there, Marley wandered among the bolts of fabric, touching and making comments about colors and textures. Finally she asked me if she could have some soft material for a blanket of her own. I agreed, and we're working on her own project now, too.)

On Saturday afternoon I spent a few minutes finishing up the basting of the quilt layers, then I began quilting.

As silly as it sounds, I had been stymied by the thought of quilting the layers together because I was certain that one had to use a quilting frame or a hoop. Although I have the large oval quilting hoop that belonged to Steve's grandmother, I dreaded putting on the hoop and moving it about in order to make the stitches. (Back when I could see well enough to cross-stitch, embroider, and do Hardanger embroidery, I never used a hoop - it was too confining and made me too slow. Plus, I noticed that the fabric was more likely to show dirt and oil where the hoop had been.)

Reading in Jane Brocket's book that she didn't use a hoop freed me to try the same. And it worked! I stitched for a little over an hour Saturday afternoon and got 1/4 of the quilting done. Last night I worked for a few hours and am 3/4's finished.

This week should see me finished and ... perhaps getting to work on another one?