blogger’s quilt festival | Lemon and Olive

Twice a year, Amy at Amy’s Creative Side, hosts a Blogger’s Quilt Festival. The first time I participated, there weren’t categories – you could just link up your quilt, and on your post, tell your quilt’s story. Now, there are categories, and voting, and unfortunately, there’s no category called, Beginner’s Disaster. So, while my quilt certainly isn’t in league with 99% of the quilts entered, I’m participating anyway, because the quilt blogging community is awesome. I don’t think I’ve ever gone to a quilt blog that didn’t ooze with enthusiasm. And, quilter’s are so eager to share their enthusiasm – so many online quilting bees, swaps, and tutorials – every blog has a tutorial tab. It’s awesome. And, hopefully, as my skill improves, I’ll be able to share the things I’ve learned too. Right now, all I could share is mastering the seam ripper.

So, without further adieu, my finished Piano Keys Quilt –

I never photographed the quilt, hanging up, in it’s full glory. And, since I gifted it, I can’t do it now. Oh well.

I started this quilt back in 2011. Knitty D and I picked the same pattern, but she, smart girl, picked the smaller size, and she, after basting, did what she knew – straight line quilting. Me, nah. I had one baby quilt under my belt at this point, and I was ready for free motion quilting. Not that I knew how to drop my feed dogs. Not that I knew how to get the darning foot on the machine. Not that I had any quilting gloves. Nevermind all that, I figured – I was just going to go for it, and figure it out as I went along.

So, I went to Knitty D’s and we had a basting party.

Looks good, doesn’t it? But, the disaster, like a virus, had already taken hold. I decided to spray baste, and I didn’t use very many pins.

Mistake.

When I took it home to quilt, I watched my youtube videos about setting up my machine for free motion quilting. I said to myself, got it, easy peasy.

Wrong.

So wrong.

It was really hard – I was pushing, and pulling the quilt through the machine. It was like a prize fight. And then, I took a look at the back of the quilt. Horrors! The spray baste had come apart, and the quilt had folded back on itself. I had sewn so many overlapping circles and twists and things that were supposed to be stippling, there was no way I was ever going to be able to rip it out. Well, at least that’s what I thought at the time. Thinking back now, I probably could have, with a little patience. But, patience is not one of my strong points. So, I decided to just cut the border off.

And, in a scissor frenzy, my Piano Keys border was gone, and I was just left with a center with a raggedy edge.

I was depressed. I put it away.

For two years.

And then finally, I pulled it out again. I straightened up the edge, and just decided to finish it.

Luckily, the return of my Piano Keys mojo corresponded with my mom’s birthday. I would have preferred to give her something closer to perfect, but I did work hard on it, even if my efforts were often counterproductive. And, the fabric, in another happy coincidence, was in her colors. So, I finished it up, bound it, and wrapped it.

And her she is, totally stunned at my talent!

She really was pleased as punch. And, she didn’t care it didn’t have a border. Nor did she care that the back of the quilt showed all of my boo boos, where the bobbin got jammed up, or my tension was screwed up, or I quilted in the same place 100 times and made a big brown blob.

She just loved it because it was from me. And I made it.

And that’s what quilting with love is all about, right?

Thanks for stopping by!