The Red and White
I've made quilts for my 3 kids, and wanted to start making them for the nieces and nephews. The oldest niece said she'd like something in red and white. I'd wanted to try the Disappearing Hourglass project for a while, and it turned out so well I almost didn't want to give the quilt away. I used Kaffe Fassett reds and white background. I have symmetry issues, so when the corners didn't come together in perfect squares/diamonds, I decided to applique "perfect" diamonds over them. The binding is a KF solid red. The back is white and I used red variegated thread in the red sections so it wouldn't take away from the fabric, and so I could "hide" words of encouragement for my niece in the top. I used white thread in the white sections. When you turn it over, you can see in the loop-the-loop quilting of the red that there are words, but they are backward. She was excited about spending downtime in the evening searching the quilt for the words of love I'd incorporated into the project. I've posted this quilt on a couple of facebook pages and the forum here, and gotten lots of positive feedback. I am so proud of this baby, and I owe it all to Jenny Doan's video tutorials. She has taken away the fear, and now I'm ready to get down to business and create something for my guild's quilt show in Sept. 2016. My 26 year old daughter said recently that she didn't remember me being so interested in "stuff like this" when she was growing up. I told her that with her and her 2 little brothers, I didn't have TIME to do "stuff like this", but now that all 3 are grown, I have the freedom to express myself in arts and crafts every day. I can't wait to make this one again, with purples and blues (for my future daughter-in-law). I'm not sure what category to put this in -- put it's definitely destined to be a family heirloom (that's what my niece said when I handed it over to her)..