Diane's Feathered Center Quilt

Long long ago and far far away (Last March and Portland, Oregon) Diane gave me this quilt to work on telling me to take my time, she was in no rush.  She wanted a quilt back that she could enter into the quilt shows, including the Oregon State Fair.  At the time I didn't think I was qualified to do this quilt because I really do not have the skill to do free motion quilting and the center wreath was way too big for the throat space on my machine.  I had not yet invested in Art and Stitch, a software design and digitizing program for long arm quilters.  But I told her that if she trusted me to take it I would invest in and learn the program and do something wonderful on her quilt.

Overview of Diane's Centered Feather Wreath

This is the result.

Through this quilt I gained a good friend, Nancy Haacke of Wasatch Quilting, who created the feathers for the center wreath, the corner banners, tabs and large borders.

For these Block patterns I created some of the patterns, the double connected curls and the curls with the stems.

These block patterns came from a variety of smaller patterns designed by Nancy Haacke, Anne Bright and One Song Needle Arts.

This quilt was on my machine for over two months, during which I learned the new ProStitcher,  worked in the "secret" service, traveled to Portland to help with a new granddaughter and attend classes at the MQX quilt show, conducted meetings for our annual gathering as President of the HOA at Zermatt AND went to Hawaii for a week.  NO WONDER it took over 2 months.  The upside was that I was developing patterns and placement of designer patterns in my head and on my computer along the way  and the downside was that I had to turn down some other quilts along the way.

I cannot begin to describe all the things I learned along the way.  I gained a greater appreciation for the new functions of my machine and a desire to share the things I have learned with other quilters.  Who knows maybe another business or career is in the works.

My daughter will deliver the quilt to Diane when she returns home to Oregon next week (she is here for my son's wedding tomorrow). Hope she loves it as much as I do.