Whew! It's done! Trip Around the World Quilt

While we were in Utah on our mission, I was starting to learn how to do some amazing strip-piece quilts at the humanitarian center in Goshen, another tiny little town not far from where we were assigned. I bought a bunch of flannel pieces at the Wal Mart in Payson, Utah for about a dollar a yard to make one for myself. Unfortunately, my duties changed and I wasn't able to learn as much as I would have like to in order to do it alone or to even get to work on it. So, I brought the fabric home along with the instructions and put them away.

However, this was another one of those projects that I was just itching to get at. So, I called my sweet friend, Nora Rigby, who was on a mission there with her husband at the same time we were. I called Nora because she had made some of these, too, and knew more than I did about it. We talked about it a bit and did some figuring, then I dove in. It's really so easy and quick, compared to the standard piecing methods around. It's still somewhat time consuming, but it's made in long strips of fabric with long seams instead of sewing individual squares together, so it goes quicker than you might think. I loved doing it.

This first picture is of the quilt all framed up and ready to work on in my living room. First, I borrowed my mother-in-law's quilt stands. Steve made me some rails for it, since hers had been sacrificed for other things over the years. I moved back the furniture and took up practically the whole room. One of my dear friends here in Overgaard, Marilyn Calder, came one afternoon and helped me tie it. We used crochet cotton and made a "lazy daisy" stitch in the corners of each block so it doesn't have the yarn-tie ends that show on top. The thread is sent through the layers from place to place with the help of a 5" needle. After tying, I brought up the backing to the front, turned it over to make a binding and hand stitched it down. The quilt measures about 100"x108". It's large enough to be a bedspread.


This is the finished quilt on my bed. It's hard to find 11 different flannel prints and solids that go well together, so the colors are a bit funky I guess, but it's so soft and cuddly! We love it.

Now, bring on the cold weather!

Just a note here, I made a top for another quilt while in Elberta, Ut. The pattern for that one is called Bargello. It's made in the strip-pieced method also, but a different arrangement of sizes and positions than the Trip Around the World. I plan to start work on this one one of these first days and intend to hand quilt it. I will post a picture when I get it finished.