My Sampler Quilt

Today is Friday, April 3, 2009. The sun is shining and it is nice and warm.
Well, here is a picture of that infamous quilt. I am so happy to have it finished - after all these years. I started it a long time ago in Bakersfield. I took a quilting class at Bakersfield College. I've always been fascinated with quilts. My grandma loved to make quilts and I loved to watch her sew the pieces together and then set up the quilt on a frame and do the quilting. Of course, her neighbors would come in, sit down, take up a needle and sew while they visited. I liked to listen to their stories.
This quilting class was very interesting. Each square was a technique of a different sort or a different design. I created three quilting notebooks along with the squares we made. Our final grade was to have 4 squares sewed together with their sashing and all the quilting done. It was common in the Victorian Era to work just a small piece of the quilt at a time. Many people lived in small living quarters and had no place to set up a frame to quilt it all at one time.
Step one was to make a plan on graph paper - planning the square and how to apply the sashing.
Step two was to cut the pieces for the 1st square. I don't remember which one we did first. There's a folded star, a cracker keeper, a bisquit square, Grandmother's flower garden, cathedral windows, several different types of applique, Grandmother's fan, Dresden plate, string quilt, and the log cabin design. Those I did during the class.
After the design square was complete, it was necessary to add the sashing. Then I cut a square of batting to fit and a piece of the backing to fit. Then the quilting started. My grandma could get seven stitches on her quilting needle but she told me the important thing was to make your stitches even. They were supposed to look the same on the front and on the back. As I quilted I got so I could five on the needle but never seven. I did work hard at making them even. The teacher was pleased that I could get 5 at a time.
When the class ended, I had several squares over and above the four that we had to have sewn together. The teacher said we could finish off the edges and make a wall hanging. I, however, intended to some day finish that quilt. I carefully folded it all up and put it neatly into a box to be finished someday.
Each time Glen found the box he would say, "You know, you ought to finish this quilt." I would get out all the pieces, look at them, savor the memories, look at my plan, and never decide to work on it. Back it would go into the box.
Well, when my left knee gave out and I could hardly walk, be brought it in to me. I decided this was the time to finish that old quilt. I changed the plan. With the new plan I had to create two more squares and plan wide sashings to make it big enough to fit our queen size bed. I love graph paper. It's fun to design stuff with graph paper.
Anyway, I went to work to cut, sew, strip and quilt. And I did that for many, many hours. I had to buy new brown fabric to go around the edges and to make the prairie points for the edging.
And here it is for you to look at. The QUILT is finished and we put it on our bed today. And I feel almost lost after all these days of stitching, stitching, stitching. Never again will Glen find that box full of squares and say "You know, you really ought to finish up that quilt."
That's all for today.