Friday Finish! Sarah Jane's Quilt

I'm whooping it up over a finish that isn't really my quilt at all, but I've been hand quilting it for more than three years now, so I'm celebrating all the same.

One of my dearest friends, another Jenny, lost her dad very suddenly four years ago this summer. It was a terrible shock, and a nightmare situation. Not long after, Jenny and her siblings were helping their mom, Sarah Jane, go through things in the house and trying to decide what to keep, what to give away, and what to throw away. As you do.

They came across a quilt that had been pieced and sandwiched and marked with a little bit of hand quilting done. Jenny remembers her mother taking a quilting class in Paris. Jenny was in college in Ohio a the time. Sarah Jane asked her to buy fabric for the class since it is so much more expensive in Europe. Jenny picked out fabrics in colors she loved and sent them to her mother.

Sarah Jane shared that she enjoyed the piecing but, when they got to the hand quilting, realized she didn't enjoy that part at all. Boy, can I relate! She had put the quilt away and forgotten it until the great cleanout of 2014.

Jenny brought me the quilt and asked if I could find someone to finish it. Although I like hand quilting about as much as Sarah Jane, and I'm only marginally better at it than she was as a complete beginner, I couldn't bring myself to rip out the hand quilting that Sarah Jane had completed herself. I decided that I would finish it for her as a gift of love.

The quilt became my project for car trips and vacations. It's been on several college visits and to at least six states. 

As I quilted, I simply followed the path Sarah Jane had marked for me; once it came time for binding I was uncertain. A quick visit to Thread Bear Fabrics offered several options, and I popped in at our guild's retreat for help deciding. I settled on this diagonal stripe in a soft blue. It's not exactly a match for those 80's colors, but I think it works nicely.

Although hand quilting is not my first choice, I did come to appreciate the quiet time with a quilt in my lap thinking of and praying for Jenny and Sarah Jane and their family. 

I'm so glad to have finally finished this quilt and returned it home!

What are you working on?