My granddaughter is visiting from Texas this week, and we are putting the finishing touches on her batik “Woven” quilt. Five or six years ago, she selected a store-made jelly roll of beige batiks and yardage of four navy batiks at Loving Stitches in Fayetteville, NC. The plan was to make a simple, yet elegant, bed quilt like an image we saw on Pinterest.
Our enthusiastic beginning was derailed by life. There is only so much sewing a teen can be persuaded to do during a week-long visit with Grandma. I mean, there’s swimming, game-playing, and excursions to fill one’s time as well. Then school, her marriage, and the gain of two babies moved this project into the UFO category. We did work on the quilt together during last year’s summer visit, but the impetus for finishing was Krystine’s tentative request that I complete it as her birthday gift. “Yes! – glad to do it!”
I finished strip-piecing the beige and navy bands and cross-cut them in 8 1/2″ segments. After arranging the blocks on my design wall, I texted a picture to Krystine, and we became excited at the propects of the finished quilt. I sewed the blocks together in rows, added a light tan inner border from stash, and a navy outer border that we had purchased with foresight years ago.
Daughter Trinity found a mottled navy extra wide backing online and had it shipped to me. I quilted the “Malachite” pantograph (by Patricia E. Ritter) with gold thread on top and navy thread in the bobbin. All that remains is the binding, and Krystine is doing “the heavy lifting” while I attach it to the quilt by machine.