I really prefer making smaller quilts, but our current bed quilt has taken a lot of abuse with dogs jumping up and down — and I don’t mind at all that dogs like to be on beds. 🙂 Since I’ve wanted for a very long time to try the Winding Ways pattern, that’s what I decided to use for the new bed quilt. I found some lovely Moda (mostly) fabrics and a very good book by Nancy Elliott MacDonald on how to make the blocks successfully — and it all came together. 🙂 I decided which free-motion quilting designs I wanted to use on it, but that’s where I stalled. Unfortunately, since the quilt is so large, I just couldn’t see how I was going to manage it in my then Bernina 630 and with some back problems of my own. However, a very good friend came to the rescue and did a gorgeous job of quilting my top on her longarm machine, adapting my quilting ideas a bit to what worked better for her. The next problem was how to get a photo of the quilt! I just have no place in my home to take a picture of such a large quilt! 😉 The problem was solved, though, by entering the quilt into our local show and taking a photo there — complete with its lovely blue ribbon from that show! 😀
The quilt was finished in February, 2011, and measures approximately 95″ x 112″. Here is a detail of some of the quilting:
