Two finishes

We have a couple of finishes around here.

Bianca put in the finishing stitches in her Giraffe quilt last night. She basically did this all herself people! I demonstrated at each step but Bianca did the cutting out, the placing, the ironing down, THE MACHINE QUILTING and the sewing down of the binding all herself. It took her two years (only working in the summer when I was around) but she got it done!!! And her quilt is BEAUTIFUL!!!

Bianca has a thing for "Kirin" (giraffe in Japanese). Everyone knows if they see a giraffe motif on something then we ought to buy it for Bianca. Two years ago at the Long Beach International Quilt Festival 2010, Bianca ran excitedly up to me and led me back to the Bigfork Bay Cotton Company booth where they were selling this lovely quilt kit. I had actually seen it browsing through the booths earlier that day and had thought of Bianca, but could she make something so complicated? A first time quilter? I don't think so. And did I want to spend the rest of the summer making it for her? Not unless she asked me to. But Bianca found the kit herself, bought it and said that SHE was going to make it (with a little help from her boyfriend's mother... me.)

The first year Bianca traced and labled all thehundreds of little pieces, applied applique paper and cut out and filed the pieces in numbered envelopes. (She's very organized.)

The next summer Bianca ironed on all the spots and dots and leaves.

This summer Bianca sat down at that sewing machine with a free hand quilting foot and quilted the thing! I really thought that was going to be my job this summer, but no, she wanted to do it herself!!! And she did a fantastic, professional job! I think she's got a gift! I told Takumi that NOW when he becomes a millionaire he is going to have to buy a long arm quilting machine for me AND Bianca!

That is one happy girl!

The other finish this week is Marcy's quilt and let's say... Marcy has a lot of other things she needs to do this summer and since Tani has free summer time on her hands....

"Thank you very much, Tani. That's an awesome job." (In Marcy's eyes.)

I peacock feather quilted all over the background fabric but you can't really see that. And I took the courageous route and did contrasting feathers in the borders as Marcy asked. Gulp. You can see all the blips and boops... Ah well, Marcy is happy and maybe this can go on some wall now.