Turtle Parade
My friend Michael is really special to me. When it was his turn to leave the Army I wanted to make him a quilt. He loves turtles so I wanted to incorporate them into this project. It took about a year and a half for e to finally find something I liked. It is a pattern called "Turtle Stampede" found in the special winter 2007 edition of "Quiltmaker's" magazine. Using EQ6 I modified the pattern to make it my own. I added a 4 patch center block, alternating 1/2 square triangles, as well as sashing with corner stones. I used red, black and white to match the decor in his room.
The quilt is 108 x 108! I started out hand quilting but I had an accident (fell down the stairs) that put my arm out of commission and it was really painful. I had to take it off the handquilting frame. Take out the stitches I had done previously then put the sandwich together and quilted it on my home sewing machine (this was before I got my machine quilting frame). It was very difficult and I had sore shoulders for a long time.
I finished quilting it in February (meandering with mono filament thread). I haven't done the binding yet. I have 6 projects waiting for that step.
Here's some of the hand work:
I didn't quilt over the turtles because I like the hand quilting so I plan on going back an finishing the rest as soon as my wrist can take it.
And here's the back:
Well that's it 'til next time.