Last fall, one of my coworkers, a man I know well and respect but who is also a friend, became a first time grandfather. He and his wife and family were then and still are very excited about the baby.
He told me she came unexpectedly early, and he spent quite a number of months going back and forth between home and hospital, in cities that were many miles apart. But baby is fine now in spite of the difficulties of her early months.
When he told me her name, I loved it. Of course I'm not sure how they're spelling it, Lilly or Lily, but whichever way, I'm sure she's beautiful! All grandbabies are beautiful. It's a fact!
So began my quest for lily fabric. I checked local shops, and you could find multiple florals of every variety, but the lilies were day lilies or tiger lilies, or God Forbid Easter Lilies... which I do not like and I don't care for the smell they give off!
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| You would think that in my mountains of fabric I'd have something appropriate! Sadly, no... |
What to do? Google, of course... I did try several on line fabric shops, and Etsy and eBay. I found a lovely fabric on Etsy but when it arrived it was heavy drapery type stuff. Then I found some fabric with lilies that ended up being much less attractive in person, and was nearly impossible to coordinate with anything to make it so. Maybe someone else could do it, but not me!
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| Not that attractive, and hard to match... |
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| Pretty but a very heavy weight |
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| Ta Da!! At last! Something I can work with!! |
After receiving three or four packages in the mail, and getting the evil eye from DH a couple of times, I landed on a web site that had what looked like the perfect lily fabric, and when it arrived, it WAS the perfect fabric.
The pattern is called Five Easy Pieces. I'm not sure who the designer was, but it appeared in Quilty Magazine and in one of the Quilty books, so I'm thinking Mary Fons had at least looked at it! In fact she had made one with a monkey print as the focus fabric. It's basically a large-centered, abbreviated log cabin. The pattern comes from alternating the logs around the center block.
I named it the Lily Quilt. Because, why not and what else?
I actually finished the top in January. By then I think Miss Lilly was home from the hospital. I thought "Self, better get going"...
Before Easter, I laid the quilt on the table and pinned it up. Ready to go, right? Fear struck!! OMG I have to quilt this thing!! I'm not a good free motion quilter. I admit it. I consider myself a piecer, and when the top's done, I'm done. The only really finished finished quilts I've worked on have been quilted by others. AND THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT!! But I wanted to do this one myself.
Why?? I don't know. It was completely irrational. My friend Suzi asked if I wanted her help on it so I could finish it before Lilly starts college. I declined.
Why? I don't know, it was irrational and if not irrational then silly to say the least!
It sat rolled up on my sewing table for several weeks, nagging and making me avoid my sewing room. Oh really? Really... but then I started getting the urge to sew, and dang it, that quilt was NOT going to stand in my way. I'm bigger than it is, right? Who says one little quilt is going to stand between me and my Baby Lock?? Ha!
Saturday Miss A came over and I said "We are going to sew today!" Whoo-hoo, let's get down there!! I gave her a project to work on and got myself set up. The first stitch was the hardest, let me tell you.
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| I was aiming for large, meandering stitches, but it wasn't long before I was crossing myself up so I decided to go loopy. |
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| Those rose shaped just begged me to go around and around... I had this fabulous variegated thread too. |
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| This is the back of that rose shape. Hey, I'm impressed! |
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| Getting adventurous, I put in the date on one of the sashing strips. |
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| I quilted my name in too, but on the front it's in the patterned block so it's hard to find. I also put the name LILLY in another spot. |
So to those of you like my friend Suzi who do fabulous free motion quilting work, don't worry, I'm not about to give you any competition yet, but I can say I did this one all by myself!
The one thing I forgot to do thus far is take a photo of the whole thing, quilted.
And I did label it. Don't forget to do a label especially on quilts you're giving as gifts. I'm so guilty of not doing that.
Sew on...
