Off Topic a Bit

This week has been so busy and with guests coming this weekend, I probably won't complete another DJ block for a while. In the meantime, just to keep the blog from getting stale, I've decided to throw in another photo once in a while. Reading another quilter's blog recently gave me the idea of posting photos of my old quilting projects in between DJ posts.

This was my first quilt, a Colorsplash Trip Around the World, which I started in November 1998 and finished in July 2000. My best advice to new quilters...don't pick such a large project as your first quilt!

When I decided to make this, I was a novice at quilting and very afraid of color. Those who know me now know that color is no longer a problem in my quilts. I also knew nothing about machine quilting, so I decided to hand quilt diagonally through EVERY SINGLE 1.25-inch SQUARE (all 2,255 of them)! Don't ask whatever possessed me to do so. Although I found hand quilting to be very relaxing and therapeutic, I found that it took too long. No wonder -- look at the size of the quilt! The outer border is machine quilted with large on-point squares .

Even though this is my first quilt, I display it proudly on the large wall of our great room. It fits perfectly there and visitors often comment on it. When I finish my Dear Jane (notice that I said "when" not "if" I finish), this is probably the only wall where it will fit. We'll see which quilt wins the battle for the prime real estate.