Sweet Surprise

I love being able to surprise someone, I mean really surprise them, and today I got to do just that.

A few months ago my good friend Jean sent through an email asking if I had any quilts for sale - she has a very special niece getting married in October and was looking for a gift. I was at a bit of a loss at first because, while I have lots of quilt tops to be quilted, I hadn't really made any of them with the intention of letting them go. One thing lead to another and I eventually suggested that she might like the Neighbour's Fence quilts or, if I really got my act together, I could try and make a new one.

The long and the short of it is that she really liked the batiks and, after a few more notes back and forth decided to take BOTH of them! You could have blown me over with a feather. I was totally not expecting this. The only condition was that they would need to be machine quilted because at the rate I quilt her poor niece would be celebrating her 50th anniversary before she received her gift.

Linda S had mentioned a gal that she has used for machine quilting, and when Linda M seconded the motion I gave her a call. Her name is Roberta Krueger, her studio is called Cocoa and Quilts, and not only does she do fantastic work she was more than accommodating with my deadline.






The larger of the two has a red backing and the second is backed in a green batik. They are each quilted with a pantograph, but in different patterns. I really liked them before I had them quilted but I totally love them now.

They are both bound in the same green that is just a tad lighter than the green border and I think they turned out really nicely. For a while there I could have been crowned Queen of The Binding because it seemed like that was all that I was doing, but that's a good thing because to me it means that lots is getting finished off.

So today I had lunch with Jean and a few other friends that I've known of for years and arranged for the handoff. She thought that I was just going to have the wedding quilt ready but I had managed to get them both quilted and bound (aren't I the coy one?). I wanted to surprise her with two because the second one is an anniversary gift to Jean from her husband, so that deserves a little surprise, don't you think?

I'll miss them because they have been kicking around the sewing room for about 8 years now - crazy how the time flies - but it's nice to know that they are off to good homes. And I have more of the black & white stripe for the border trim so I've already started looking at new batiks...

Happy Anniversary, Jean!