Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Sunshine and Stitches

"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house."  Nathaniel Hawthorne

My goal this weekend was to get the binding sewn on my Robbing Peter to Pay Paul quilt.  This quilt top was done back in the eighties.  I think this is the only two color quilt that I have ever done.  My quilts tend to be multi-colored and scrappy.  I was cheerful as the machine started humming and I knew that this quilt that had waited patiently in a drawer for many years would soon be on my bed.
 

I had made my binding a few days earlier and in order to keep it free from tangles and easy to use I got the idea of using this Rice Krispies box.  Worked pretty slick.  I just unrolled it as I needed it.


I had brought my machine upstairs and was sewing at the dining room table.  The deck door was slightly ajar and the room was awash with warmth and sunshine.  I couldn't stand it.  I wanted to finish what I was doing but the lovely autumn day was calling me and the little owl on the table seemed to be telling me to go out and enjoy the last days of autumn warmth.  It was time to go outside and play.


Soon I was at the quilt shop down in Valley Junction for a little needle threader package and some inspiration.  With my purchases of needle threader, two hand quilting stencils and several fat quarters,  I headed into Nan's Nummies across the street for some of her wonderful cookies.  A few stops into antique stores and gift shops to look for a present for my sister was not productive.  I saw several things that caught my eye, especially the cute fall decorations.



But not finding the perfect gift that spoke to me, I decided to head back for home.  After all, I had a quilt to complete.  


Back at the house I was tempted again.  I could rake.  I could walk through the yard and listen to the leaves crunch beneath my feet.  I could just bask in the sunshine and enjoy the gift of a lovely day.  But the quilt was calling and I was soon back at the machine.  The rest of the day was spent sewing on the binding and watching football with my husband.

As I stitched and enjoyed the feel of the soft cotton beneath my hands I realized that this was the last quilt I had that was completely done by hand.  I had cut the templates out from cardboard cereal boxes.  I had cut each piece out separately.  This was before I had my first rotary cutter and mat.  It was entirely pieced by hand.  Since then I have moved on to doing my piecing by machine.  I thought of the hours spent stitching this quilt.  Hours that I enjoyed as I would sit in the evening while my husband watched television or the kids worked on their homework.  I enjoyed the entire process of bringing this quilt to life.  At this point in time I will probably never piece a quilt by hand again.  The machine is so much faster.  But they will all be quilted by hand.  That part will never change.


And on the bed.......


Oh, and it was a good thing I took some time out of the day to play because the very next day we had a change in the weather and my mum's were shivering under a thin sheet of snow!




 





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