The quilt top (including the borders) was made in 2006/2007. The Tulip Wreath was a class sample I designed to teach free motion machine embroidery. That is a technique where you fuse the shapes in place then drop the feed dogs on your machine and draw around the shapes with thread. It is a little like free motion quilting, but less stressful and without batting and backing. The stitching is done only on the top layer of the quilt.
Like many of my UFO's once the top is made, I have what I need, so I am in no hurry to finish the project. This one ended up being hung in the bathroom in the quilt shop I owned in Pennsylvania. Until it was STOLEN. Yes, some unscrupulous person used the bathroom and decided to take this quilt top right off the wall! We discovered it missing on a Monday morning after a particularly busy weekend. At the time, the husband of one of my employees worked for the FBI, so she jokingly taped a huge "X" of crime tape over the area where the quilt previously hung. We made a big deal out of telling anyone in the shop that our bathroom was a crime scene and that a top had been stolen. I was amazed that someone actually took the unfinished quilt top. I'm well aware that people shop lift, but that top was photographed and on the front of my published pattern! The fabrics were discontinued, and we had never sold a matching kit, so anyone local that saw the quilt top would know it was the same one on the front of my pattern. Who was the thief going to show it to? I assumed the person that sole it was someone just traveling through, and I would never see that top again.
Fast forward a year or more. One evening before a group meeting in the shop, I was at the cutting table surrounded by customers. Someone made the remark that "quilters don't steal". I laughed and said, "Sure they do". We had a whole sewing machine stolen from the classroom and I mentioned that the Tulip Wreath sample was stolen right off the wall. Then someone asked, "What do you do?" Still feeling a bit snarky about the incident more than a year later, I replied "Not much I can do, so I just say a little prayer every night that whoever took it rots in hell". I know, I know, not my finest moment, but I did laugh a little when I said it if that helps.
Low and behold about two weeks later a plain brown envelope, with no return address arrived in the mail. You guessed it. The Tulip Quilt sample was inside. I have to believe that whoever took it was standing at my cutting table that night and heard what I said.
After its traumatic experience, the Tulip Quilt deserved to be custom quilted. I haven't really felt my skills were up to par until now, so when I looked for my next UFO project, I decided today was the day! I filled the yellow area with free motion loops and wiggles. I used the computer to stitch a beautiful design on the floral triangles. Back to loops and squiggles in the lavender border using matching thread and then I attempted some (free-hand) sort-of-straight with rounded corners quilting in the dark green border. I also used the dark green thread to go back through the wreath. That tacked that area down and attached it to the batting and backing so that everything lays flat. Machine binding using a darker green fabric. There is no way I have the same shade of green batik from 2006!
FYI, I did get the binding on the Perfect Tilt quilt. Now I just need an evening and a really good movie to get that binding hand stitched in place. Any suggestions?
That's quite a story. I'm sure it was the "rots in hell" prayer that initiated the return. Movie recommendation: Weekend Away. Its either Netflix or Amazon Prime. Lots of twists and turns. Margin Call was good and Did You Hear About the Morgans. I stayed awake during all of them, so that's pretty much a ringing endorsement from me.
ReplyDeleteAll very different.