A Labor of Love

It began as an innocent visit to our local fabric store, Pleasant Pheasant Fabrics to visit with my friend, Tamara, who is the owner.  Something caught my eye in one of the sample quilts she had displayed. . .sloths.  Lots of sloths.  Since sloths happen to be our oldest grandson's favorite animal, I asked her if I could purchase it.  Her reply was, "No, but you can make one!"  This was the first week in September.

Excuse me?  Me, make a quilt?  Yes, I can sew, but making a quilt sounded like a large undertaking.  Especially when she also explained she no longer had one of the fabrics required, so we would have to "make up our own pattern."  Now it REALLY sounded like work!  She told me to bring in my sewing machine and we would start designing, with her as the teacher and me as the faithful student.  Perhaps, I thought, I would be able to complete it in time to give it to him for Christmas.

After first learning the art of "fussy cutting" to separate the smaller sloth pictures from the larger panels, we decided to use two sets of each and came up with this design:

 

 

Some days I would sew in the backroom of her store, and other times she would give me assignments to take home and complete.  I felt pretty good about myself when the two blocks of smaller sloths came together by mid-September.

 

By the first week in October, the top was assembled and we were checking it for size on his uncle's bed.

 

At this point I was already thinking ahead to making quilts for the other three grandchildren and found inspiration in some of the books she had for sale.

 

 

I also had decided on a "favorite animal" theme for each of them, and was happy to find a cute fox material in her store for our youngest grandson.  The other two would be more complex, as grandson #2 likes okapis, and the granddaughter was partial to goats.  Hearing the words,  "You will never find okapi fabric." inspired me to do a Goggle search, and indeed there was okapi fabric at a website called "Spoonflower," as well as some cute goat fabric. 

 

The order was placed, and by mid-October the sloth quilt was on the long arm machine being quilted while I was wondering how many more quilts I could get done by Christmas.

 

 

By the end of October, my first ever quilt was complete, along with a matching pillowcase.  

 

 

Once the "quilting bug" bit, the other three quilts came together like "clock work".  Even with fall being a busy season for me, I had the second quilt top ready by the third week in November, the third one done a week into December, and the fourth one together a week before Christmas.  What a blessing it was when Tamara was also able to have them all quilted in time to get the binding finished. . .with two days to spare before Christmas!

 

What better way to celebrate, than to invite her to join us on Christmas Eve so she could witness the kids getting their quilts and pillowcases.  It was indeed a "labor of love," not just by me, but by Tamara, as well!

 

What's next?  Perhaps a little break from quilting, as we head to Bismarck tomorrow for the Legislative Session.  But I do know there will be more in the future, just "down the road" a piece!