Girlfriends

 I enjoy a wide variety of friends: neighbors, work, church, sewing, quilting, crafting, friends of friends. This week it was my turn to reach out to a friend who needed a hug (but we can't do that right now). 

Michelle had a great idea a year ago: why not have quilts on the back of the pews at church? It would give a warm and welcoming look to the sanctuary as well as a colorful and cozy touch. It sounded nice but was something we were not going to be able to do. Where would the quilts come from? Who was going to wash them every week? It was just too impractical but was still a great idea. Thank you, Michelle, and now you can sit down. This plea made me think about what was behind it and I could understand what Michelle was after, a feeling of warmth and welcoming that goes beyond words. So in the weeks after we rejected her idea, I asked Michelle if I could make a quilt for her and showed her some patterns and a few samples of fabric. She looked at all of the pretty colors and patterns and got real quiet, pointing to one pattern but had a deer-in-the-headlights look. Sometimes offers like this seem overwhelming so I figured I would ask later when she had a chance to think about it.

Along comes a pandemic where we are all stuck at home and unable to get out and do the things we normally do, at least in the usual ways. Michelle and her quilt kept calling to me so I got out a stash of colorful fat quarters and the pattern she liked and got some blocks made up:

Blocks light to dark

Each block was made up of a pair of fat quarters, making one the opposite of the other.  The pattern said to label the lighter colored block A and the reverse darker block in the sets B then arrange them by laying them out ABABAB. I tried it but it was too random so I tried lighter blocks at the top and working down to darker blocks as you can see in the photo above. That didn't seems to resonate with me either so I put them in sets by color:

Blocks in color sets of four

This was a better idea but now I needed more blocks, from 42 to 48, yet I could now balance out colors with the final six blocks. Without sashing, how should I quilt this together? Oh, did I have fun.  On the verticals I used variegated purple thread making loops and long curves. On the horizontals I used white thread and wrote Bible verses about hope and faith: you have to look really hard to see them! Finally, in the center of each block is a great big space where I made a large eight petaled flower

Free motion quilting of center flower, purple curves, and words

When first starting you have to keep from telling yourself  "that's 48 flowers!" but just to dive in and keep sewing. When it was all done I remembered to make up a label and had one downloaded in my machine embroidery files. It wasn't exactly a label but  a design I could use for one:

"To Michelle In the quilt of life friends are the stitches that hold it together. Karen November 2020"

Once I had the Singer Futura XL 400 out to play I made up a sewing machine cover out of some fabric I ordered from Spoonflower, using solid colored fabric for the embroidered side panels:

And I want one of those, and this one, and where's the pink model?

End panel

End panel using downloaded embroidery file

Didn't that turn out way too cute? I've had the fabric for several years and finally put the ideas together for something I will find joy in using and just looking at.

Quilt finished and ready for Michelle, I arranged to meet her at church where she was working in a children's program. It definitely took her by surprise but she loved it. We agreed the idea of quilts on pews sounded nice but was never going to fly with a pandemic! Although this was one of the quickest quilts I have made, it was about the most rewarding. Here's one final photo of the finished quilt:

Finished quilt for Michelle

Even during a pandemic we can find ways to hug each other. Feel the love!