A Good Deed Done
Yesterday my day started early as I needed to be on the road before breakfast. There was a task I had signed up for and wanted to do, so it was full speed ahead.
A friend, Judy, is visually impaired to a huge degree from Macular Degeneration, but had the want of putting together a quilt for her granddaughter’s graduation in the spring of 2015. Oh, a quilt top, that didn’t sound too bad. A second friend, Doreen, was right and ready to help. Admittedly, Doreen has never quilted, but she was determined to help. With food items in tow we were ready to start the day at Judy’s.
Over time, Judy had saved a pattern that was to be used for this time along with the fabric. The fabric was 18 different patterned prints. Judy can make out shades of color, but nothing definite. The eyes felt like the ball in a “gone bad” pinball machine . . . where to focus first?
We started with the zeal of new calves when they are let out of the barn after a long winter and they smell all that fresh air that is to be had. The printed pattern was weird, really weird, but we plugged on. After several hours we scrapped the pattern and made our own original design using the fabric.
Doreen took verbal instructions like a trooper as she was either cutting, ironing, sewing or giving me the “deer in the headlight look.” Whatever I ask of her, she did. At one time she said, “It sure seems silly to cut up all this fabric and then sew it back together.” Bless her heart, I need to bring her into the quilting fold and get her hooked.
I think at four in the afternoon I announced that I was really tired of hearing my own voice. Working in the depths of my sewing room with just ghosts of my past keeping me company is a lot different than verbalizing every step of every one of the 35 nine inch wild print quilt blocks. It’s a good thing laughter was a large portion of the long day.
The end result was a completed twin sized quilt top with just a few scraps remaining of the original 18 fabrics. The steps to complete the project will be at a time somewhere down the road. After all, you add the batting in one piece to the back of the top . . . add the backing of the quilt in one piece and it’s a quilt ready to be tied and hemmed. Getting the top of any quilt that is pieced with various colors and fabrics takes a huge amount of math to come up with something that will be used for comfort on a bed and not used as a component for one of Nicholas’ forts.
Good job, Doreen, and thanks for all the hugs, Judy.