Christie's Quilt

I am so excited to share my sister-in-law's quilt.  I have had it ready for a little while, but wanted to wait until after her birthday to share pictures and this quilt's story.

The year was 1997 B. K. (Before Kids),  when my sister-in-law Christie signed up for a quilting class.  A HAND PIECING class.  Christie has always liked hand work so that didn't send her running.  You can see on the back of these blocks all the pieces were sewn together by hand. Her stitches are even and lovely and so are her points!

Jump ahead to 1998 and I was expecting my first daughter, and my wonderful sister-in-law puts aside said quilting project to produce a spectacular heirloom Baptismal gown for her first goddaugter.  (As I pulled out the gown today for a few photos, I realize that I have a task ahead of me to remove the stain.  Any advice?  My concern is the silk ribbon embroidery.)

I am amazed at all the details she included in this piece.  A true labor of love!

A little more time passes and a few of blocks have sashing pieces joining them together, but now we are in the year 1999 A.K., and Christie has her first child and said quilting project gets tucked far, far away.  A little over a year ago we got to talking and Christie pulled the project out, and we had fun looking at it.    She knew she wasn't going to get back to it anytime soon, so I took it home thinking maybe one day I would get the top together.  Well, it is now 2015 and Christie and family made their traditional New Year's visit.  We thought we might work on the quilt top together, but fishing got in the way, so I decided that finishing it would be the perfect gift for her 40th Birthday. Christie had mapped out where the blocks were to go and in which direction, so finishing it  - with the assistance of a sewing machine was a breeze.  The original layout made for a pretty small lap, so I added the four patches on point to the top and bottom to make the quilt a more usable size.

Christie had no idea that I got the top together, and I showed her a few quilting pictures for "someday".  She found my photos of feathers busy, so I new I wanted to try to keep the quilting a little simpler to match her taste.

I was really pleased with how the design in the yellow sashing and cornerstones turned out.  I hadn't done anything like that before, but I really like the effect.

The outer border got some free hand flowers.

My original thought was to do some crosshatching in the green triangles around the four patches, but decided on the simple echoed lines.  I love how it all looks on the back.

All of the blocks had a little bit of a different design. Here are a few.

This center Tumbling Blocks block is Christie's favorite.  I stitched in the ditch and did a tight background fill to make the blocks and the perfect piecing stand out.

You may have noticed that in some of the pictures the binding is sewn to the front of the quilt, but isn't finished on the back.  I thought that since Christie put the first stitches into this quilt by hand, it would be fitting that she put in the last.  Happy 40th Birthday Christie!