A Rookie No More

Sandy just continues to amaze our circle of quilters. The other day she sent through a few pics of a new finish called the Westalee Ruler quilt. I have to say, I am in awe. For someone who until a few years ago had not made any quilts this is an amazing (and beautiful) achievement. I consider myself as having a fair bit of patience but I'm not sure that I could do this.

It's a quilted sampler with each panel machine quilted separately and then put together with binding. Love the muted palette. This was apparently to be the back side with the other side all in white, but she prefers this side now that it's finished.

Most of it was done on her Brother but some of the templates were larger than the throat of her machine so she broke down and made this what she likes to call 'her most expensive quilt ever' - course, templates, fabric ... and, a new Pfaff machine!

She took a beginner course at a shop called Sew Creative (apparently Joan who works there has the patience of a saint and Sandy is now an expert with her seam ripper). The class started in September and involved about 30 hours of quilting. The quilt is about 60 x 60" but it took 12 yards of fabric! Apparently the heavy quilting really pulls the fabric in.

Assembling it took some time, as each piece had to be bound on both sides. They usually did four blocks per class, so once they got the technique on a block down pat the rest was homework and they were provided with excellent videos for future reference.  

These are the templates that she used but apparently there are lots more to be had so she's already looking forward to the next course this Fall. In the meantime, she's looking forward to playing with her new machine some more and making some table runners. I say again, I am in awe. I don't think she's in the rookie camp any more....M