I have some of the loveliest customers.....

Back in November I had a phone call which introduced me to the lovely Mrs Palmer who had been English Paper Piecing this Grandmothers Flower Garden top for much of her adult life. Jean as I now know her is 91 years old and one of the sweetest ladies you could ever meet. Jean asked if I could visit her home to discuss her quilting requirements which I duly did. She is impeccably turned out with her silver hair coiffed and her nails manicured and painted.

On the morning of my visit I gathered up a few of my quilts to do a bit of a show and tell, but also to show Jean what I could do with her quilt. Jean had her own ideas which we discussed but after seeing my quilts gave me free range as she thought I was the expert. I had my own personal show and tell of Jeans many handcrafted items ranging from knitted afghan blankets to crochet cardigans to hand made 'clippy and proddy' rugs, paintings, cross stitched wall hangings and cushions, we both had a grand old time. I left explaining I'd be back in two or three months as I had a bit of a queue in my work schedule just now.

After about three hours of pulling out tacking stitches and paper templates I thought I'd done lots but it took me another three evenings to get all of those suckers out. Once that job was done I was excited to get on and get this quilted. I really couldn't make Jean wait three months.

Jean had suggested that I bind the quilt in the shape it was around all of those points and bends, I think I would have lost the will to live!

Instead I opted to applique the whole top onto white borders using a short and narrow zig-zag stitch and invisible thread, after mitering the corners quite easily, (which I thought would be a bit tricky seeing as there are no 90 degree corners on hexagon blocks at all), it was ready to quilt. Adding the white borders actually made the quilt a more usable size for a double bed.

 

I chose a traditional edge to edge design named Feather Flourish as a lot of the quilting would disappear into the busy fabrics but I like how it showed itself on the white borders and blue polka dot backing fabric from my stash.

I added the binding so that the quilt was totally finished for Jean to see and use straight away, to say she was thrilled was an understatement.

Another lovely Lady is Mary. Mary travels on the bus from Glasgow to Edinburgh to Jedburgh to bring me her quilts, ingeniously packing them into her roll along suitcase. This one is for Mary's Daughter. its a typical lone star quilt with a plain backing fabric.

This quilt needed a bit of custom work, I opted for digitised designs alongside freemotion, handguided work. I used various coloured threads to suit the fabrics which gave a lovely effect of a wholecloth with different coloured threads on the backing fabric.

I had a lovely phone call from Mary to let me know her quilt had arrived just in time for her to add the binding and gift it to her Daughter for Christmas. Mary was thrilled with the result, I'm so lucky to have such lovely customers!