I haven't been able to show this finish to you since it was featured in the Nov/Dec edition of Machine Quilting Unlimited magazine but now that the edition has passed, I knew you'd want to see it a little better. First, I need to tell you a little about Mary who pieced this civil war quilt top. She is a member of my online quilt guild and her nickname is "The Wiz". She is one of the best piecers and most prolific piecers I know. But that is only one of the things that makes her interesting. The other thing? She likes to go dumpster diving. Well... not exactly dumpsters- more like cutting table trash cans. You see, at our retreats we have a big trash can by the cutting table and when you are cutting out your quilt or trimming things up, you toss the bits in there and then Mary walks by and digs them out. It has gotten to the point that now we just bypass the can and give the trimmings straight to Mary. She will save the tiniest little bits of fabrics. But more impressively, she will USE all those tiny bits of fabrics. She loves scrappy quilts and has quite the collection of trimmings from her friends. As for the diving part of her dumpster diving habit... well that is accurate. She's a shorty and that trash can is TALL! (she's gonna kill me when she reads this) LOVE YOU WIZ! This year when I went to the Houston show, Mary (on the left) and my other fabulous quilty friend, Cat (on the right), were also in attendance. This was their first Houston and they were worn out but they loved it. We went out to dinner Halloween night. Can you tell what I'm dressed up as? I think only about 10% of the people I passed knew who I was. The ones who did would whisper to me, "May the odds be ever in your favor". Now do you know?

I was a Capital Citizen from the Hunger Games! The best part was that my wig was bedazzled in sparkly lit LED lights nestled around my fascinator. Here's a photo of some of the other great characters working in the APQS booth at Houston. Since that show typically opens on Halloween we always dress up. It is great to work with a company that likes to have a little fun when we're working hard. Anyway, back to Mary. Here's what her quilt looked like in the magazine after I'd quilted it. She was so kind to let me use her quilt for my article.

My article was about how to pick out the appropriate pantograph for a quilt. One of the methods is to look at the style of the quilt to give you clues. Now, a civil war quilt is a drastic example. We know that something really modern is going to look completely out of place on it. For example,

Did your eyes cross and did you start to twitch? The pantograph I’ve overlaid on her quilt is great but that is soooo not right for that top. How about something traditional like a Baptist Fan?

Perfect, right? Isn’t that wild how you just instantly know what is completely wrong and what feels good on a top? Sometimes it is easier to tell what looks wrong on a top rather than what looks right. However, don’t let that frustrate you. After all, if you know what looks bad you are one step closer to finding the “just right” pattern. Now, quilt on!