Lessons from a Quilt.

Last night, Gus and I took the Dolphin Signature Quilt to Gail.  Before I list what I have learned from the making of the quilt, let me just say that I'm learning every day from Gail as I read her blog and her journey with Ovarian Cancer. Gail is facing the cancer down with great spirit and faith. Gail is Gus's school nurse, and as I listened to them talking last night, I learned that she is also a friend to him and all of her students. She drew stories out of Gus about this school year that I had not yet heard.

This quilt started as a stack of challenge blocks from the Thimble Pleasures 9 Patch Challenge that ran from September-December last year.  While I enthusiastically made my 90 blocks (a block a day) and then some, actually quite a few more, I didn't ever put them together.  After learning about Gail's diagnosis, I thought about using some to create a quilt from Gus's fourth grade class. This grew to first include the entire fourth grade, and then the entire school as I brainstormed ways to create a design that could accommodate about 400 signatures (students, faculty and staff).  After figuring out that it was indeed possible to create a design for the second side of the quilt that could be appealing, I sent my designs to a few folks at school for their feedback and garnered their enthusiastic support.

New skills attempted (and mastered) and other skills practiced (I've blogged about much of this previously):

• Sashing
• Cornerstones
• Bringing the thread to the top, and burying in the batting
• Invisible Thread
• Free Motion Quilting
• Echo Quilting
• Following Quilting Designs
• Pieced borders
• Creating & Attaching Bindings
• Measure Thrice, Cut Once
• Sometimes it is better to stop and draw the design carefully and other times freehand is great
• Anchoring the quilting in both directions really is a good idea
• A comfortable seam ripper and good lighting is imperative

The biggest thing this quilt taught me was not to be afraid to try something new.  And also that You-Tube is a WONDERFUL resource for learning quilting skills.  I definitely learn by seeing someone demonstrate over reading the instructions.