Buckeyed Beauty

Last fall I took my second quilting class at Ye Olde School House in Hamilton, WI (Cedarburg). We made this Buckeye Beauty wall hanging.

However, the 4-week class stretched into a couple of months. I was sick, and then my father passed. By the time I had my last class it was after the holidays. My classmate, Lisa, who waited for me so we could finish together, couldn’t make our last class due to a car accident her daughter had. I’m still not sure if Lisa ever will finish this project. I hope so.

Anyway, the main body of the quilt is sewed from a “charm pack” which consists of approximately 32 pre-cut coordinating fabric squares produced by the fabric companies. While I like the fabrics in the charm pack I picked, the hanging is a little too busy for me. However, I do like the end result and am glad I decided to go with a black print boarder. The class taught us triangles, boarders and arranging fabric/colors into pleasing patterns, as well as the “star” feature. Again, my instructor was Diane, who is a wonderful teacher. I finally got the binding and pocket for hanging hand stitched to the back. The quilt was professionally quilted by Mary, who goes under the business of Meandering Mary, LLC. She doesn’t have a website, but her email is meanderingmary@charter.net I think she did a fabulous job on this piece and am thrilled with the end result – mostly due to her expertise.

Here is a picture of it before the boarders were added. Big difference!

Details of the quilting. Double click to enlarge the picture.

As of today I have one queen sized quilt top (I call my dragon fly quilt due to the main fabric) on the way to be professionally quilted by Mary and another twin sized quilt being quilted at The Patched Works. This means, I better get the binding hand stitched on my mock basket weave quilt (see earlier post) and get it finished before the other two are done! By the way, that quilt turned out great, despite my finding a turned block at the quilters.

So, now I will finally (yes, I will, I really will) start my “friendship” star, queen size quilt. I have been putting that off for months. Making the “stars” scares me, so I will practice a couple on scratch materials. Since I have to make 72 blocks or a total of 72 stars to complete the quilt top, I have a feeling after the first few blocks I will be able to sew them in my sleep! When that quilt top is completed I have 9-patch all cut and ready to go. I start a “sampler” quilt class in March and have the material for that quilt all ready. Oh, and I have a baby quilt to make for Phil’s granddaughter, due in a few weeks.

Whoosh! So many quilts, so little time!