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I just finished sewing down the binding on the “Free” quilt this morning!!!!!! I made it with weeks to spare before my 50th Birthday!!!!
Pieced and quilted by Mary Anne Ciccotelli
Pelham, New York
Started: March 2000 – Completed: November 2008
Pattern: Sunbonnet Sleuth’s Y2K Mystery
One Saturday in March 2000 (at the beginning of my quilting adventure), my husband Tom went to Washington, DC for the day. While he was gone, I started surfing the web. I entered “QUILTING” as my search. Little did I know that my quilting life would be changed forever! One project I found was: “Sunbonnet Sleuth’s Y2K Mystery with 2,000 Charm Squares”. This mystery project was for all the quilters on the internet who had exchanged charm squares. I had not participated in any of these swaps, but I did have LOTS of fabric (with various fiber content) in the attic. I climbed the ladder into the attic with scissors in hand and started cutting strips of fabrics. When Tom returned home, I told him what I was up to and his comment was – “a FREE Quilt”! Little did he know what this “FREE” quilt would lead to and the real costs involved.
After completing 40 of the 81 blocks, I realized that my placement of the light, medium and dark values could have been better. To prove it, I set this project aside and started working on my Y2K Frenzy quilt (which also ended up on my UFO list). I decided that it would be nice to complete this project before I turned 50 years old as a visual example of how far my quilting has come. The one restriction I imposed on myself was that I could only use the strips of fabric that I had cut from fabric in my attic so long ago.
The big dilemma came when deciding what to use for the back. It felt wrong to take fabric from my quilting stash (which I have plenty of). I debated about piecing all the strips and squares that were left, but I didn’t want that many seams in the back of this quilt. So I compromised – I used some of the squares and strips along with fabric from the attic.
Yesterday I spent most of the day trying to get my desk under control. It has been left to its own demise for way to long, so that will have to be today’s project as well. But, last night I did quilt this donation quilt (36″ square). While looking over a few quilting blogs I saw this tutorial by Vivian and decided to give it a try on this donation quilt.
Spring 2003: Top pieced as a sample for a
November 2008: Quilted with different types
Upon completing the first display section I felt it was too large – so it became the rod pocket. The second display unit was complete with my embroidery machine. I could not face cutting all those little back pieces again. When I finished the top (white borders without the crayons yet) a couple of my critics suggested putting numbers on the calculator keys. It was turning to Winter so this project was put away. Almost a year later I pulled it out to work on it again. I changed the borders to a brown fabric and added the crayons. I decided to take my critics’ advice and add numbers to the keys. I had most of the numbers embroidered on when I realized that the numbers on a calculator are not in the same position as the numbers on a telephone. I had used the telephone placement. I had to unpick the 1, 2, 3, and 7 and embroidery them in the correct place. Luckily the 4, 5 and 6 are in the same position on either device. I also did away with the “%” key and moved the “X” key to make room for the “0” key.
Here is the front of the quilt – sorry for the angel – my quilt holder is at work.
Here is the label for Splash of Silver. Now it is comletely done.
The third label for a quilt that Emily finished. It is going to be mailed here on the East coast so we decided it was silly for her to take it back to Utah just to have to mail it back to the East.
Today I bound (by machine) the two baby quilts that the Young Women have been working on the past two weeks at our Wednesday night activity. Each quilt has the same flannel on the front and a different color of flannel on the back. Also the ties are different colors. My granddaughters love the tied quilts that I made for them when they were born. After washing these quilts some of the ties look like they are having a bad hair day, but they still look cute.
Can’t wait to see you Baby X and Baby A. (I hope their mother isn’t reading this – think that might ruin the surprise!)
Work on my VSQ Challenge quilt continues but I am not at liberty to share the pictures as of yet. I have the post in draft form and it will post on Oct. 14. I think that I am almost done with the top and will be ready to start quilting soon. It is only 25″ square so I think it might get lost on George.
(FYI – If you are counting the squares, three of the squares are covered by the rod pocket.)
Made by Mary Anne Ciccotelli
Pelham, NY
Top & back pieced Summer 2002
Started quilting February 2008
Completed August 2008
Now to do a quick clean up job in the house since Tom will be home in a few hours (and I need to iron his white shirt for him – the QUEEN of Last Minute is in good form today.)