A flurry of quilting activity since the beginning of the year has culminated in two entries into a biennial quilt exhibition March 5 & 6.

First, I’ll finish the Shirt Pocket Quilt. Since it’s a pillow-top border, it’s easy enough to smooth it flat on the living room futon for handwork. Besides, I don’t possess a proper quilt frame. I stitched a simple 1” border and quilted stitch-in-the-ditch along each shirt block. This ‘easy’ part took me about 28 hours.

The Necktie Quilt, now titled Hanging out with Dad, is a little more challenging.

After deciding which 13 ties to hand quilt and which to simply appliqué, I start to work. However, since I’m using a hidden stitch from the front and being careful to create a ‘tie shape’ from the back, it takes me eight hours to quilt just ONE tie. Sigh. Doing the math, I realize that it won’t be finished for hanging, so I whittle my list down to 7 for now. Still, I’m reassured by one of the show organizers that even my unfinished quilt would be accepted as long as it was together enough to hang. The plan is to stabilize and whipstitch the ties and finish hand quilting the main six after the show.

I must say that this has been exciting! Working on a deadline always gave me more energy. And, spending my time quilting 6-8 hours a day the week before is oddly relaxing. Granted, I turned in both quilts at the eleventh hour with the hanging sleeves barely attached, but I’m proud to say ‘mission accomplished’ on this leg of my Necktie journey…

And my dear friend and client, was very pleased when she saw her Father’s Tribute Quilts hanging. “Oh, my gosh,” she kept saying over and over. It can be overwhelming to see this for the first time and experience the flood of memory. I still have to print out the pictures and stories she sent to me and tuck into the shirt pockets. Plus, there is a call for entries for a ‘scrap art’ exhibition at the SJ Quilt Museum, so perhaps I can quilt more and enter this in other exhibitions.