Charity Quilt Finish from Cheryl

This Plaid Beauty comes from Pat Templin.  Pat sent the quilt top to Cheryl in Dallas for quilting and binding.  This saves postage because I didn’t have to forward the quilt top to Dallas.  Pat had several quilt tops that needed new homes, and when she found out that Cheryl’s favorite charity uses bed-sized quilts, Pat enlarged this one to fit a twin bed.

You are going to love this beautiful quilt made entirely  of plaids and a few stripes.  Do you think all of these fabric pieces are from shirts?  It must have taken a long time to accumulate enough fabric for this quilt top because of the huge variety of plaids included.

In Dallas, the quilt top gets loaded onto the longarm frame.

Pat’s top is made entirely of nickel units:  5” squares.  Some units are one fabric. . .

 

. . . some are four pieces: two squares of different sizes, and two rectangles;

 

. . . while other nickel units are three pieces.

For more variety, Pat turned the units in different directions.  Pat’s work is meticulous!  All those intersections  match perfectly.

 

The digital quilt pattern for the Plaid Beauty is called “Mountain Laurel,” designed by Patricia Ritter.  You can see the digital pattern on the computer screen; the dark lines show where the machine has stitched as it moves across one row.  See?

 

The digital pattern is a combination of swirls and feathers.  Here, Cheryl is getting started on the first row.

It’s a mark of progress when a “floated” quilt pulls up off the floor.

The quilted top gets a trim to cut away the batting and backing.  You can see that Pat’s quilt lies perfectly flat and straight on the edges.  Longarm quilters will tell you this doesn’t happen very often.

Pat included binding for the quilt, all tied up with a bow.

Cheryl sews both sides of the binding by machine.  It’s faster than hand quilting, which means time for more quilts!

 

The Plaid Beauty is well named.  It is wonderful.  Don’t you love that plaid border between the two black borders?

This quilt is 66” x 97”.   A nice size for a twin bed.

The pale brown backing came from a thrift shop in Dallas.  No one will ever guess its humble origin now that it is part of the Plaid Beauty.

The backing was enlarged just a tad with this pieced insert.  The gold and print fabrics are from an estate sale.  When buying fabric at estate sales, I like to think that the original purchaser of the fabric would be very happy to know her selections are now part of a beautiful quilt.

Almost ready for shipment.  A label will be sewn (by hand!), and after a turn in the washing machine, the Plaid Beauty will be on its way to the House of Hope in Gainesville, Florida.  The House of Hope just moved to a bigger house, so there is room for more ladies.  Now, 14 women live at the House while participating in the 6- and 12-month programs.  When these ladies graduate, their quilts become a focal point in their new residences.

Pat and Cheryl did a wonderful job on the Plaid Beauty.  If you have plaid fabrics or shirts, this simple pattern is a great way to get them out of your stash and onto a bed.