My Oldest UFT

Grandma’s Dream Quilt for Rachelle

This quilt is my first-ever quilt. I have always admired quilts, old and new, and have wanted to learn to make them since the early ’80s. I’ve sewn and enjoyed handwork since I was a little girl. My grandmother showed me how to sew and embroider. Finally, in the summer of 2003, a DF showed me how to get started with this quilt project. (Thank you, Cindy! How many times have we discussed this obsession we’ve acquired??) I started out making it for myself, but DD Rachelle wanted it. I thought at some point I’d switch the color scheme of my room to something other than burgundy and green so eventually I said she could have it when I got it done even though my room is still burgundy and green. Little did she know that it would take more than 3 years to complete. [sigh]

I completed most of the work on it in 2003, getting all the blocks together probably by early 2004, but I didn’t get the top completely put together until late 2005 and sandwiched until early 2006. As a side note: I should explain that our house was on the market from October 2004 through October 2005 and I really didn’t have an opportunity to do much quilting during that time. From the summer of 2005 (when it looked like our house might finally be sold) until now, I’ve been feeding my obsession by starting numerous other projects! LOL And, of course, handquilting takes some time. That’s where I was with it at the end of 2006.

So now it’s 2007… Hopefully, Rachelle will forgive her mother for finishing a quilt for *everyone* else but her and I’ll get this done in 2007. She has asked me to machine quilt it–probably thinking it’s the only way I’ll get it done in my lifetime, at this point! LOL Right now, it’s sitting on a quilt frame in the living room where it goes very well with the decor but soon I’m going to take apart the quilt sandwich and throw it on the machine quilting frame. (I promise, Rachelle.)