Electric Amish, 55″ x 73″

Some days are better than others. The day I finish a big project is always a good day!

I pieced this top in early 2006. Then, in a moment of complete insanity, I decided to hand quilt it.

I’d only been quilting a couple of years and I thought, for reasons I can’t even explain myself, that I needed to hand quilt a project in order to be considered a “real quilter.” Do I believe that now? Absolutely not.

Had I ever hand quilted anything? No, no I had not. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, what kind of thread to use, needles, anything. I just jumped in with both feet and started stitching.

I picked up and packed away this project more times than I care to mention. Dozens of other projects (mostly paper pieced!) were completed while this one waited patiently in its big red bag. To put it in perspective, I lost a pair of glasses for a whole year because I accidentally put them away with this quilt. It’s been on vacation to New Mexico to visit my BFF, sat with me through many movies, lots of sci-fi and true crime shows. It collected cat hair sitting on the arm of my chair.

The pattern came from an old magazine that I still have floating around somewhere. It’s a Storm At Sea pattern, set on point. I had never made a quilt this complicated at the time and had no idea what “on point” really meant. Part of that experience was chopping off half the blocks all the way around. If I remember correctly, I almost had a panic attack when I made the first cut.

I kept all those cut blocks. Earlier this year, I turned them into a small quilt for The Linus Connection, which I dubbed Baby Storm. Finishing that quilt gave me the impetus I needed to get this project out again and get it finished! If you’ve been following for a while, you might remember this was on my UFO Round Up for 2010.

One of the most special things about this quilt for me is what it represents. All bright and batik fabrics were gifts to me from my Bee friends. I pieced this top on my very first quilt retreat with those same ladies. It’s my first hand quilting project and my first big project that made for myself start to finish.  4+ years (really, almost 5!)  and it’s done. I could not be happier.

Electric Amish was named by my friend Linda when I first started piecing it. Linda, do you remember?!

Tackett, helping me quilt (obviously!)

The quilting isn’t anywhere near perfect, but as time passed, my stitching did improve.

I take a fabulous close up of one of the blaring errors! Still, I think it’s pretty.

Baby Storm, donated to The Linus Connection, August 2010

Happy crafting!

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