Started 9 Years Ago
In 2002, my family went on a wonderful vacation to Britain. We had a fantastic time and I took a ton of pictures. This one was my favorite, showing the sun shining golden on the old York city wall.
(Click any image to see a larger view.)
Gorgeous, right? I thought so, and I decided to make a quilt with this image. This was before my current loose style, so I did things very exactly. Oh my!
First, I manipulated the photo and got this: (Click to see)
It’s a wonder I didn’t abandon this project right then and there!
What made me think “This looks like fun?”
I don’t know, but I made a pattern.
I mean, how hard could it be to cut and fuse ALL THOSE PIECES?
WHAT was I thinking?
(Don’t ask me what the pattern coding means. I have no idea.)
I transferred some of the primary reference points to a base muslin fabric, and got started. I even made pretty good progress.
But, it was way too tedious for me.
I was NOT having fun!
So, I put it all away.
Now, 9 years later, I’ve pulled it out again. This time, I’m trying to work more loosely. I have to admit, though, once that pattern line is staring me in the face, it’s VERY easy to want to follow it!
I’m working on it, though. I’ll be showing you my progress in upcoming posts.
Ellen Lindner
P.S. Has anyone else ever put something away for so long? (I did this once with another quilt – for 6 years. And all it needed was a border!)
I put a cross stitch away for over 45 years. It was started in junior high school and I finally finished, framed, and hung it about 5 years ago. And the funny thing is I can’t tell the difference between what I did then with what is more recent.
I can’t tell you how long I have put a quilt away. It still is not finished but it is in view so that I can and will finish it. It just needs to be quilted but I struggled as to how to do it. What quilting patterns would enhance the quilt? BTW, if you tripled your 9 years, it would be close – that’s how long it’s been but I can’t remember exactly.
I’m glad you are finishing the York wall piece;I’ll be watching for progress reports. It is too good a design to pass up. One of my best quilts spanned about 15 years as I put it away, took it out, put it away, took it out, finally abandoning all advice and requests from family and friends and finishing it according to my own vision. It’s aptly named “Finding My Way.” It is on my blog http://www.marthaginn.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html.
Martha
Glad to know I’m not the only one! I guess we’re all members of the “Better Late Than Never Club.” Good for us! (Although I have plenty of UFOs that I’ve trashed or given away.)
My mother made 8″ white blocks with stuffed applique butterflies 25ish year ago. I didn’t want them but my daughter, in North Carolina, did. So the next time I went down to see her (lived in Indiana at the time) we bought material to make setting blocks and put it together. I took it back to Indiana, hand quilted it then took it back to NC for my daughter’s enjoyment. So, quite a travel through time and miles. My first bed quilt worked on by 4 generations as I had my granddaughter do a little quilting on it as well just to say she did.
Hi Gail,
How wonderful that you have this multi-generational quilt for your family! Especially after so many years of storage. Awesome.