Quilts completed

I finished my One Monthly Goal for July! I am normally very slow at binding quilts, but for these two, it wasn’t so bad. The hardest part was trying to space black binding along the black skyline of the quilt. I didn’t want one color all the way as the quilt is purposefully total opposites, the neutral, creamy top and the black on grey skyline. It isn’t a perfect match up, but considering the time crunch, I was happy. The pattern is Skyline by Coach House Designs. I bought it 3 years ago at a small quilt shop in New Ulm, near down town, on a state wide quilt shop hop. I was very intrigued by the design and mix of neutrals. Later I had the thought it would be great to use the school’s logo where I work (skyline of Minneapolis) in place of the patterned skyline. In looking at the pattern further, I didn’t want it to be as large, so had to start doing math to reduce the 12″ blocks to 9″ blocks. Not too bad. The next summer on the shop hop, I started buying fabrics. I was really happy with the mix of grunges, neutrals, and textures I found for the top. Erica, in Marketing, sent me over the jpeg of the logo easy enough. My first stall. I opened it up at home and wondered how on earth I am supposed to print off a 2 inch visual on my screen to spread out 63 inches on my quilt. Jeanette, machine quilter and graphics expert, to the rescue once again. No big deal she says! I admire her so much! Meanwhile I am making the different color combos and sizes of star blocks and loving it! My second stall. I am not an appliquer. I am all thumbs and have no confidence. This time Mary Alice to the rescue! She talked me through reverse tracing my skyline onto freezer paper and searching out the correct fusible foundation (which I found the third summer on a retreat at a store in Rochester) for the black fabric and how to bond them wrinkle free. This quilt would never have been completed with out the help of my friends.

I made this quilt for Jeremy. We have known each other for about 10 years, I would say, in different ways. He was a student first (we catered his grooms dinner), then a fellow employee at the college for several years. We then reconnected when he became my Realtor. It was such bad timing. The afternoon of our fall opening event, my realtor back in Litchfield called me with an offer on my house. I was so anxious I went to Todd, who told me that Jeremy was now a Realtor. He was so patient and thoughtful with me. HUGE decision to make and I only had a couple of months to find a new house. I even put an offer on one place only to have misgivings and he worked it out for me. Very happy with the house I did purchase – since the master bedroom is the largest with a great closet, it became my quilting room which is just wonderful. The next summer he came back to the school to work again! He truly deserved a quilt, just wish I could have completed it in a more timely manner.