The Quilt

The top of the quilt is finally done!!!

Now comes the fun part--filling the entire thing with tiny stitches through 3 layers.

Our stake donates a homemade quilt every year to support an organization that helps others who are down on their luck. This organization runs a food bank, meals on wheels, career help, language help, health clinic, womens shelter, etc. There are many churches that support and run this organization --our stake is one of them.

Every fall, they hold a huge gala fundraiser. There is a wonderful fancy dinner, a band, and an auction. Some of the items auctioned off are airline tickets, fur coats, jewelry, outdoor kitchens, furniture, and a king-sized homemade, hand-quilted quilt.

This is the second one I've made for the auction in the last 3 years. I make the top and then there are many women in the stake that help quilt it. The auction is in October and so far we are on schedule.

This first picture is the first block completely done. There are 16 blocks total and they are 16" square. Each block contains 64 -2" squares, many of them triangle squares. It took forever to cut out all of the tiny pieces.

Here's the first four blocks done.

Here's all 16 blocks done and laid-out. They aren't sewn together yet.
The border fabric is next to them.


Here's the entire quilt--102"square. This is the first time I have ever done a mitered border. I like the look of it and would do it again --now I know that you need a LOT of extra fabric in the corners to get it to lay flat. It's too bad I had to learn on this one. It was a lot of fabric to handle at once in every corner. The border is made up of 3 different fabrics and is 20" wide.

What Works for Me

A few years ago I had a great antiquing day. I went with two friends for the whole day. We traveled far and wide in a large, white pick up truck trying to find the perfect piece of furniture. I can't remember where we eventually ended up, but the when we got home the back of the truck was still empty. We had spent a great day together but had not found what we set out to get.

There was one item we had found, however, that made the trip worth it. A fantastic wood polish called "The Natchez Solution." http://www.natchezsolution.com/index.html
The guy in the antique shop had just received a shipment of old trunks from the Czech Republic or somewhere far away and they were old, the wood was all dried up, and the paint on them was faded. He brushed the solution on them, let them sit overnight and then rubbed them with a rag. They were gorgeous. He had a few he was working on so we could see the difference. We left his shop with a prize--the phone number off the back of the bottle.

Before they set up a web site, you could just call the number and they would send the product to you. When you received the product, you sent them a check for payment. They are a mom-and-pop type business that clearly uses handshakes and trust as opposed to contracts. The times that I have called, I feel I'm talking to the guy that actually makes the polish, not a call center. That is very appealing to me.

This is a product that I love and have used ever since and I think my antiquing buddies would agree with me. I use it on all the wood in the house, the tables, banister, desks, TV cabinet, etc. I don't use it every time I dust, just maybe every month or so.

I have a table in the family room that one of the kids left a glass of water on. There was that lovely faded circle that I thought would be a part of the table forever. I couldn't believe that this stuff fixed it so easily.

We recently removed the storm doors from our front doors. I love our front doors but you couldn't really see them with the storm doors over them. Now, about once a month, I rub the solution all over the doors with a rag and they stay protected. Rain and water from the sprinklers just beads up and runs off.

I wish I had wood floors so I could use it on that. Actually there are a lot of reasons why I would love wood floors but we'll save that for another day.

If you're looking for a good wood polish, check it out!