My most recent quilt, January 31, 2010

Finished last night or early this morning actually, at 12:30 AM and I was so keyed up about finishing it that I could not sleep (more than my usual insomnia) until 2:00 AM. Needless to say, wake up at 7:00 was a bit ragged this morning.

I am calling this "Friendship knows no season" It is a lap robe about 70 x 55 inches that I made for Melody, a friend in my hometown who has been ill recently. We raised kids together and she babysat my daughters while I worked at the local community college. Her daughter Beth is the same age as my daughter Jamie and her son Kevin is the same age as my daughter Becky. Then she had Caitlyn but I called it quits! I have attached a picture of the kids (sans Caitlyn) when they were very small, about 1981.

I talk to Melody's daughter, Beth (the blonde in the kids' picture) on facebook and she told me her mom was having a bit of a tough time of it so I took it into my head to make a quick quilt for this friend from my younger days. We now live 600 miles apart and have not seen each other for 10 years but she will always be my friend who helped me get through those parenting years. I wanted to have it done by her birthday but I didn't work fast enough. I did, however, make it in one month, which is a real land speed record for me!

The quilt is machine pieced and machine quilted. The cross stitch four season works on the front I found in a local thrift store in really tacky plastic frames. They are signed "D.A. 82" so whoever you are, D.A., thanks for the inspiration for this quilt! I picked fabric to represent the four season, eight of each type, cotton of course and created the seasonal motif in long strips down the front of the quilt with 1-1/4 inch squares and strips. The quilt is finished with a polka dot on black border, highlighted with hot pink. The back is a co-ordinating print of rainbow colored bubbles on black. I quilted using the "stitch in the ditch" method and did some free form quilting in the binding in a diamond pattern. That was a first for me.

On the reverse of my quilts, I always stitch my name (V. B. Allmendinger Leiner) and the date. My daughter Becky has started quilting with me, a real trick all the way from Texas, and she is my creator of cross stitched dedications. She did the "Friendship knows no season" and I found the cute critter with a bunch of posies at another thrift store. I am into recycling big time! Thanks Beck, for all your hard work. (the check is in the mail!)

So, I mailed off the quilt this evening and Melody should have it by Friday, February 5. I love to imagine what the reaction will be when I give a quilt. Long ago, I made a quilt for a friend named Bridget McCarthy and she went nuts so every time, I am looking for that "Bridget reaction." For us extroverts, the experience is not over until we share it with someone else.

Melody, if you are dialing in, thank you for being my friend!