Finally Finished!

This is actually the third quilt I've started for my sister Heidi. The first one, which featured a fabric with a dark purple background and sweetpeas in bloom, got as far as the finished-top stage before I decided I truly did not like the pattern.

My husband, the great un-sewer, took the blocks apart for me and they will get used in something else. I have no idea what but not in the quilt I originally envisioned.

The second quilt never grew beyond a table runner that appeared in my second how-to book from Wiley, Visual Quick Tips Quilting. I liked the pattern as a table runner but I thought it was too complex to work as a larger piece. That plus the fact I had some doubts about an adequate fabric supply.

I still have a number of half-square triangles cut for that top and know exactly where they're going to get used. But not in a quilt top for my sister.

Back in, oh April or May, I picked up a book from my quilt guild's library that featured what the author called "Half Nine Patches." That's nine squares of fabric with three on the diagonal done as half-square triangles. They were featured in a Friendship star wall hanging in the book which I enlarged and expanded to become this quilt, which I truly like, for my sister.

This piece presented some difficulties even after the top was complete. I made one back, didn't like it, and did another. I embroidered one label, didn't like it, did another.

While quilting it, I broke a needle in my sewing machine that put its timing out of whack. Got the machine fixed (thank you Buzz at LGB Bernina Sales in White River Junction), got it back in place (where it purrs in contentment) and promptly had the bulb burn out.

I've been sewing on a machine since I was about twelve and I have NEVER had a bulb burn out on me.

But all that being said, I really like the way this one turned out.

It's on its way to the post office in just a few minutes. Can't wait to hear how my sister likes it.