A Quilt for a Friend

Hi there!

I hope that you are enjoying the later days of August!  The weather has been humid here but we are enjoying the last days of summer!  My oldest is home again after finishing his college diploma and getting his affairs sorted out :-)

I took some of the summer finishing up this quilt for a friend.  I January I lost a dear quilting friend after her battle with Pancreatic Cancer.  While she was ill she was trying to finish quilts for all her grand-children.  She didn't quite get there.  After her death one of her daughters was sorting through her sewing room and found this horse panel that was clearly purchased for one of here grand-daughters who loaves her horses!

She asked me if I could make it into a finished quilt for her - and - how could I refuse!!!  Of course I would!  I proposed many different setting options for her; but, what she wanted was for the panel to just have borders added and finished.  How could I refuse!?

Luckily my local quilt shop (LQS) where the panel was purchased still had some supporting fabrics.  I took a picture of them and brought her the fabric choices.  I knew that she would pick the black and grey prints since these are the colours that she loves to wear LOL!  I simply added borders to make the quilt large enough to be a throw for her to cuddle under.  

I discussed various quilting options with her; but, what she wanted was for it to be quilted the way that her Grandmother would have quilted it.  That meant hand-quilting it or a meander.  Meander won out!  I used Glide thread Warm Grey and it quilted up beautifully!!

I am in love with this grey barn-board fabric that the owner of my LQS suggested!  It goes perfectly with the theme and colours of the panel!  What a find!

When it came to the binding of the quilt I found myself stalled.  I just couldn't bring myself to tackle the last steps of this quilt.  Overall, this was an emotional quilt for me but the hand sewing was just hard.  Probably because this was one of the ladies that I hand quilt with in my Tuesday night Bee.  Needless to say, I finished it.

I am happy that I could do this favour for my friend, and, of course, her grand-daughter.  I miss her so much; but, it was nice to be able to finish one of her last projects and make the gift to her grand-daughter happen.  Now it's time to give it to it's owner whom I know will cherish it!!

Quilts really are a great big hug from the maker!!