Quilt-a-thon

Yesterday at quilt guild was our annual quilt a thon for charity. We spent several hours after the meeting working on quilts for the charitable organizations we support. Everyone brings their equipment, picks a project, and gets down to work. Some people do cutting, some do piecing, some do tying, some do binding, some do quilting - whatever suits their fancy. Meanwhile we chat, admire each other's work, have lunch, form alliances and friendships, and share tips and tricks.

I like to do the quilting. I picked a baby quilt "kit" that had a printed panel for a top, a cut piece of batting, and a solid yellow flannel back. No elaborate piecing here! I pinned the three layers together and started to stitch. This was machine quilting, by the way.

The printed panel for the top was just awful. It was a stiff cotton poly blend, probably more poly than cotton. It had a double wedding ring design printed on it and the "fabrics" in the design were in Playskool colors of yellow, red, blue and green, with designs of a baby theme from a different era: rattles, diaper pins, sailboats. When we ironed the top in preparation for quilting, the acrid scent of melting polyester wafted upward.

Can I make this into art?

As my quilting design, I decided to follow the lines of the double wedding ring design - no marking needed, an added benefit! In the centers of the design circles I drew large hearts and then free-motion quilted around them. Free motion loop-de-loop quilting filled in around each heart. More loop-de-loops filled in the background area, and straight line quilting defined the printed "borders." Because the backing was a solid color and the batting was thick, the quilting design stood out nicely on the back.

It became something nice! The quilting gave the flannel backing an interesting texture to complement its fuzzy softness. It would be something someone could snuggle up in.

I didn't quite finish the whole project in our alloted time. It needs a little more quilting and binding. I hope to finish it for the next meeting, then it can go to help someone.

That's why I do it. ...and it's fun.