It feels like so much has happened in the past week around the world and it really has our heads spinning. I fully intended to make it back to the blog before now and share another quilt from our local quilt show with you. It’s hard to believe that it’s been a week – feels like just a couple of days.

There have been a lot of changes in our state/town due to the pandemic, as I’m sure there has been in yours. I hope all of you are safe and healthy and continue to be. The uncertainty is a bit unsettling, but hubby and I feel prepared to face the next several weeks. I’ll be spending a LOT of time with my longarm and sewing machine because, well, that’s my happy place! I look at this ‘social distancing’ as an opportunity to catch up on a lot of projects. As quilters, we love to spend time in our sewing rooms so being asked to stay home should make all of us excited! LOL

Now, on to the quilts!

This quilt was the Best in Show winner and category winner at the Mid-Ohio Valley Heritage Quilt Show and was made by Pearl, a wonderful lady I met through our quilt guild. Pearl asked me to quilt her top for the show and of course I said yes! Those baskets are so perfectly pieced – it’s always fun to quilt anything that Pearl makes. She’s an excellent piecer and quilt maker.

I quilted feathers around the perimeter of the quilt, inside the dark border.

I knew the quilt wanted feathers, but wasn’t confident in my ability to freehand them. I tried to find some computerized feathers that would fit in that odd shaped space but nothing I found would work. I do have software I can use to manipulate designs but I can barely fire it up, let alone use it to edit a computerized quilting design. So I took a deep breath and started stitching. Sometimes you just have to be fearless and start stitching!

And look at that! I was able to make pretty decent bump-back feathers! I was so excited when I saw that they looked good. There is definitely room for improvement, but I’m getting there.

Other elements in the quilting plan were continuous curves in the baskets, a small stipple in the background, and a pretty computerized motif in the center square of each four basket block. It was a fun quilt to play on, and I loved working on it. Thank you Pearl!

Another quilt that was displayed at the show was Dava’s Tumbler quilt. Here’s the label that was on it:

Isn’t that fantastic?? I’m a bit obsessed by quilts that have been passed from generation to generation. They are so precious! It’s like I can feel the spirit of the person who made the quilt, like a piece of her lives on in her work. It’s hard to explain but makes me emotional when I see quilts like this. Oh! How about a picture of the quilt? 🙂

This quilt has definitely been loved over the years. There are some worn spots and places where the stitching has come undone. I just love that Dava has this in her family, and can only imagine how much it must mean to her.

Yesterday I took another quilt off the longarm. I’m going to show you part of the back so you can see the texture of the quilting, but won’t show you the quilt until the owner has it back. It might be a few days, as I have another of hers to quilt and will be loading it today. I am absolutely loving the way this quilt looks. These feathers are computerized, but everything else is freehand and rulers. Maybe someday I’ll be able to freehand feathers as nice as these.

Okay everyone – it’s your turn to show off the projects you’re working on! Time for another Main Crush Monday. What has you busy in your sewing space? You can link up any blog post, Instagram or Flickr pic – here’s how: