Quilt on a Clothesline - Nine Patch

Although this feature has had a rough start (read my previous post) I am excited to share my second quilt today.

After taking the class on basic quilting, with lack of time and interest I bound my first quilt without finishing the quilting and continued making dolls and dried and silk flower arrangements - a home grown business I was in before I made my first quilt. It seemed like I was working every waking minute of my day. It was difficult to manage with three kids so I stopped making dolls and focused on being a full time mother.

In 1996 we moved to Seattle. I didn't have heart to get rid of my fabrics so I packed my precious yardage along with my belongings. I did not know what I was going to do with it but it was FABRIC! How could I not take it with me? Having grown up in a middle class family in India, waste not want not was the only way of living.

Two years after moving to Seattle, I took my fabrics out of the box and decided to make a quilt. That's right, there was almost six years of gap between my first and second quilt. What made me decide on making a quilt and not dolls? The temperatures...It was always too cold, I thought I was saving money by making a quilt from what I already had. I set up my little TV cart that I used as the sewing table and plopped my Singer sewing machine on that in a corner of the play room. 

I taught myself how to piece blocks all over again with the help of only book I owned. 

Nine- Patch made with leftover scraps from doll making.

You can tell by the colors, they are not my usual colors..What a contrast, right?   

With three children under the age of nine and husband who often traveled on business, I found myself enjoying sewing during the little pockets of time in the evenings. After the day of running around chaotically, having a systematic process of cutting the strips and piecing them into nine patches was fulfilling. I had no clue how or if it was going to be quilted. I was just having fun looking at colors, fabrics and being proud of those perfect points. Which by the way looked as if they magically appeared, every single time!

I had planned on hand quilting the quilt. I owned a machine that did not have capacity to lower the feed dogs, neither did it have a darning foot nor a walking foot. Not that it would have made any difference! I did not know what was their purpose in the first place.

I thought it would be nice to have some white space to show off my hand quilting...So I used muslin for the borders. It's been 16years since this top was made...it's still not a quilt.

Even though these colors are not my favorite, there is something peaceful about it. Like an antique quilt, I will always treasure this because of it's significance.

This quilt helped me make first quilting friends in Seattle. One evening my son's friend's mom came to pick her son up after the play-date. I had just finished the top and it was hanging on the banister. As soon as she saw it, she asked, "Do you quilt?" and added, "You should join our quilting group, we meet once a week and it would be nice if you came." And so it began - A wonderful friendship with Rhonda, Patty, Janey, Diane, Susan and Sandra. They were all experts at quilting and hosting. I was so new to everything!
 
Each of them had son or daughter in my son, Gautam's grade but not in the same classroom. I took my daughter to the weekly meetings. She loved playing with Patty's daughter and looked forward to seeing her. It was great to meet them and share quilts and life.

It still seems like just yesterday!

As far as this quilt goes, I am happy to have used up all of the leftover fabrics. All good memories stitched in those jewels like patches. Some day it will be finished.
 
Have a great weekend you all!