Thanksgiving Table Quilt Update...

Brynwood Needleworks - Thanksgiving Quilt

 

Last week, I told you I was going to Kathy D.'s home to work on my Thanksgiving quilt. This piece began life as a vintage tablecloth. I found two of them, so one was for our table, and I gave the other one to Kathy.

 

We made plans to get together to put them on her longarm machine and quilt them. I showed you the fabrics I chose for the backing, and was happy that I had enough of the the caramel-colored fabric, as that was my first choice.

 

Whole Cloth Thanksgiving Quilt

I worked on the quilt one day last week, and I went back again yesterday, intending to complete it. Fortunately, I did finish the quilting. This tablecloth was much larger once I started working on it, than it initially appeared.

Detail - Whole Cloth Thanksgiving Quilt

This was my first time using Kathy's longarm machine, so I got off to a tentative start. I decided to use a pattern that I've doodled in pen/pencil/marker since I was in junior high school (more than a few decades ago). I have muscle memory for drawing it over and over, so it was the perfect design for me to stitch in freehand (by machine).

Whole Cloth Thanksgiving Quilt

 

Kathy zeroed out the "odometer" on the machine before I started sewing, so that it would keep track of the total time I spent on the design. When we finally took it off the machine last night, the timer registered 6 hours, 15 minutes (and 33 seconds). 

 

We laughed because, to tell the truth, that was just the time the machine was running. I was at Kathy's house much longer than the initial 2 hours that registered on the machine. Yesterday, I arrived at 10:30 in the morning, and left some time around 6:45 in the evening. Did I say I was gassed by the end of the day? I was...but in a good way.

I love how my doodles translated to fabric and thread. All I have left to do is cut off the excess fabric and batting, and bind the edge. I'll do that over the next few days. I think I'll take a little break and just admire my first real exposure to the longarm. 

By the way, I'd like to give a shout-out to my longarm "expert" friends, Susan Slaton, Pat Alderman, Rhonda King, Melinda Sword, and, of course, my hands-on tutor, Kathy D. I have a new found appreciation for just how much practice, attention, skill, and talent it takes to do the work they seem to do so effortlessly. Kathy doesn't hire out her longarm work, but for all the quilters who do, you don't charge nearly enough!