What kind of quilter?

Hmm, the topic of the week was, what kind of quilter are you?

I think "what kind of quilter aren't I?" suits me more.

I found out a couple of years ago that I enjoy applique, I love piecing, I like paper piecing, I love machine quilting. I really love almost every part of quilting. I love the designing, and the dreaming, and finding just the right fabric. I even like to do mitered borders and sew the binding on. Is that weird?

I didn't always love to do the bindings, but a dear quilter friend helped me to enjoy that part too. She said that was her favorite part of quilting, the quilt is almost done, as you are sitting there sewing on the binding, you can see it up close and feel it, and that is the best thing, watching it all come together. Ever since then, I have loved sewing on the bindings.

The one quilting form I'm not too in love with is hand quilting.

My first attempt at hand quilting, wasn't what I would call a success. Actually it's sort of surprising I stuck with quilting after that one! It was my first "real" quilt. I had been inspired by a guild that came to the camp where I worked part time as a cook. I loved their show and tell on Sundays! Seeing all those neat projects was better than chocolate cake!

Several of the ladies there noticed our aprons, because I always put appliques on the fronts of them for fun. After a bit of talking to me, I joined right up.

I had been wanting to make a quilt for our youngest daughter who was 2 at the time. (she is almost 14 now) So, I got out a cat block pattern, went to the local quilt shop, got fabric, and away I went. The blocks turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. Then came the part where you turn the top into a quilt. With no prior experience, I laid the back and the batting and the top out on my bed!

Then I pinned it together with....... ready for it? Diaper pins! Seemed to be holding together pretty good..... so I started HAND QUILTING IT. Having NEVER done this before I started to realize that this was going to take forever! I kind of put it away, well, I stuck it on a shelf.

Next project.....

After a year or so, my husband mentioned that I hadn't finished it yet. (he has no clue any more just how many UFO's I have, since I am not dumb enough to leave them out)

So anyway, I thought, "he's right, I need to just finish this while she still wants kitties". Thinking that hand quilting was taking way too much time, I thought I would combine hand and machine quilting. So parts are hand quilted, parts are machine quilted, and I probably don't even need to mention that there are a LOT of puckers on the back! Okay, maybe pleats and bulges is a better description! I did manage to get all those diaper pin holes closed back up though!

Honestly the strangest part about the whole thing, aside from the fact that I still love to quilt, is that this is still her favorite quilt! In fact when she has friends over or baby sits, it's the one everyone wants to cuddle with. The picture here is not great, it's the kitty one to the left. I used it one year in our quilt show quilt walk promotion. I would NEVER put it up at a show or anywhere that someone could come and actually look close at the workmanship, but it looks okay in the window!