To Quilt or Not to Quilt? What a Silly Question!

I finished piecing a quilt top this month that I started in 2005. That was the year that John and Mary Kennon were married. I told them I would make them a wedding quilt,

but they eloped to Seattle, so I figured I'd finish it for their 1st anniversary.

Life happened, including the escalating of my schoolwork with BYU,

and this ambitious project languished.

After my last summer term at BYU in 2008, I started working on it again. With about a third of it finished, John broke the news that he and Mary Kennon were separating.

We were so sad. I didn't have the heart to keep sewing on the quilt.

My final coursework for graduation from BYU kept me busy until April 2010,

but after I took the last test and finished the last paper, I found I had discretionary

time on my hands, so I exchanged one of my loves--reading, researching, and writing about literature--for another one of my loves--creating beautiful things with fabric.

Just to get started, I made myself a quilted purse out of some amazing coordinated fat quarters I had collected some years ago.

Fat Quarter Bag with multiple pockets inside

and out for organization

Next I tackled another project that had been three years in the queue. When Christina

graduated from high school I wanted to make her a quilt. We chose the pattern and bought the fabrics, but that's as far as it went. Now she was about to graduate from college, and I felt

an urgency to complete the quilt for her. By the time I needed to fly out to Utah for graduation I had finished piecing the top and had it more than half quilted. So she received a partially

completed quilt for graduation with the promise for the finished product when she started

graduate school in September.

Well, I missed that deadline, but I did finish it in October and took it to her personally when I went to visit for a long weekend.

The Campi di Flori quilt for Christina's graduation

After this achievement, I was on a roll.

I had another quilt top hanging on the upstairs banister that whispered, "Finish me, finish me." I call this my "Fall Flurry" quilt since the fabrics were leaf patterns, greens, golds, deep oranges, and maroons. I made this quilt top years ago as a "Mystery Quilt" challenge with two quilting friends, Susan Rasmussen and Carol Goe. We went to the quilt shop together and chose five fabrics that we would each use to make a specified number

of blocks in specified patterns. The border, backing, and binding fabric was our individual choice, as was how we arranged the blocks in the top. It was fun to see how differently the three quilts turned out, even though we each used the same fabrics and made the same blocks.

The "Fall Flurry" mystery quilt

I have another quilt top hanging on the banister, a "Country Village" block-of-the-month quilt that Susan, Carol, and I also did together over a year's time about ten years ago. But I think it is content to keep hanging there awhile longer because I don't hear any whisperings coming from that quarter. That's when Susan encouraged me to finish John and Mary Kennon's quilt, which I have now switched to calling the "Irish Chain" quilt.

It is a double Irish Chain pattern in two shades of blue and white with a creamy butter yellow for accent in the border. Susan felt, with justice, that if I could just get past the quilt's history, it would be perfect for my bedroom.

And of course, she's right. I love the Irish Chain pattern, and Val is partial to blues--seems a perfect fit. To give me added incentive, Susan gave me a fabulous birthday gift: when I have finished the Irish Chain quilt top, she will have me over to her house to cut fabric from her stash for me to use in a scrap quilt of my choice.

Talk about holding a carrot in front of my nose! Just what I needed to get sewing,

and now I'm finished.

And it is beautiful.

Trying out the Double Irish Chain quilt top on my bed.

Lest I forget, though, it still needs to be quilted. I'm off to the fabric store to get batting

and quilting thread! And looking forward to my date with Susan

to cut scraps!