I also quilt

I've been quilting in the winter months for a long time now.  I made my first quilt in 1991 in Australia. A friend there invited me along to a 'Quilt in a Day' class.  I enjoyed it a lot - and I had a lot of time on my hands since I had no outside job & both kids were in school.  After I finished that quilt, designed for our son, I made another for our daughter.  When we came back from Australia, I had no time for quilting because I went back to school to finish my degree.  Once I graduated, I went to work outside the home, and was busy raising kids, so didn't do much for myself.  It wasn't until we moved to Straight River Farm and the kids were gone to their own lives that I really had time to think about an avocation.  Things I like about quilting: I get to be creative - while still being orderly (the librarian in me). The things I create are useful and (usually) beautiful.  There is no end to the learning process, so I don't get bored.  I can do it by myself - or if I want to, I can join a group and work with others.
This winter I have been working on a new bed quilt.  A couple of years ago we bought a king-size bed. We've been using a queen-size quilt as a covering & it's adequate, but not really large enough.  It took me a long time to decide on a pattern and even longer to decide on the fabrics to use.  In the end I just had to say 'enough' and get started.  I'm pretty happy with the result - and Farmer Bill thinks it's great.  He's always postive about my quilting, but he also has a good eye for color and design, so I appreciate his input.  Here's the quilt:

I'm not a great photographer but you can get the idea.  The quilt is hanging on my display wall in the basement, which is where I do my quilting.  I have a large table that Farmer Bill & I built one winter, cupboards to store my stash of fabric, space to leave all of my stuff out & ready to go when I have time to work on it.  The display wall is a large piece of felt tacked to a board and hung.  It gives a place to work on designs and placement of quilt blocks before they're sewn together. The blocks stick to the felt without pinning so they can be moved around until one is happy with them.  This quilt has 72 blocks - and I spent a good several hours arranging and re-arranging them.  I'm just now beginning to sew the rows together (you can see one is missing from the left).  I love quilt designs that contain optical illusions. This quilt does not have any curved pieces. Every seam is a straight line.  Both Farmer Bill and I love the fabrics and the colors in this quilt - it will look great in our bedroom and be lovely to sleep under for years to come once it's finished.

The other project I'm planning for this winter is a duvet cover for Ellen.  I've never done a duvet cover, but don't see why a quilt top couldn't be made into one.  We looked through my mass of quilt magazines and chose a pattern. Then we made a trip to SR Harris to choose fabrics.

[Fabric shopping is almost the hardest part for me because there are so many gorgeous fabrics available & I just want to have a piece of all of them, just in case.  I've had to make a rule that I don't buy fabric unless I have a purpose for it.] 

I should be done sewing together the king-size quilt in another week or so. Then I'll clean up the leftover scraps, clean and oil the sewing machine, change the needle, sharpen the rotary cutter and start on the duvet cover.  The actual piecing is not difficult at all, but the pattern includes a large appliqued design in the center of the quilt.  I've done applique and have basic skills. This will take more skill and more patience than most of what I've done before, but I'm looking forward to the challenge.