MY FAVORITE QUILTS # 5

 I am wrapping this up with one my my MOST favorite quilts. I say this is the quilt that changed everything for me as a quiltmaker.

   JOYFUL JOURNEY, 87" x 87", 2009

In late 2008 the Block of the Month Quilt for The Quilt Show.com was revealed at International Quilt Festival in Houston. I fell deeply in love with the pattern. And I was smitten with the designer, Sue Garman. I made it a point to meet her and tell her how much I loved it. As it turned out, she was making an easier version with larger pieces to add to her pattern company offerings. She graciously agreed to send me her file for Washington Medallion and our friendship was sealed. 

I wanted to make this quilt for our 2009 guild show. I selected my most favorite fabrics and decided from the beginning to put my best work into this project. Though I had been quilting for almost 24 years, I usually had a "close is good enough" attitude. Now I was determined to do the very best I could. Things that didn't align were taken out and done again. 

When the top was done, I found that one of the two baskets was sewn in upside down. The baskets are the only blocks in the quilt that have a definite top and bottom. I spent almost two hours unsewing the errant block, and getting it on it's feet. I felt much better when that was done.

As the top neared completion I began to think about who could quilt it in the custom manner I wanted it quilted. On Facebook I saw the work of Pamela Joy Spencer Dransfedlt, who lives in California. Her work was exactly what I was looking for.  I contacted  her to ask if she would take it on, and if she would be coming to International Quilt Festival at Long Beach, CA that summer. She loved the quilt so we arranged to meet at Long Beach for the hand-off. 

Little did I realize then, wonderful longarm quilters are busy. So asking her to have this done in about 6 weeks as a huge Ask. But she was game for the challenge. 

Then I learned I could not enter this quilt in the judged show in Houston if I paid for the quilting. So we began a collaboration. I offered to make her one of these quilts in exchange for the quilting. Her husband loved this quilt from the moment he saw it so her response to my offer was "Steve says yes!". 

Here is the quilt I made for her after she quilted it for herself. It hangs in her living room and I occasionally spot it in her family photos on Facebook:

Pam did an outstanding job on the quilting and the piecing is pretty good too. It is a great quilt and means a lot to me. It represents my willingness to take myself seriously as a quiltmaker. 

Here are some detail shots:

It was such a great quilt I decided to enter the American Quilt Society show in Paducah, KY. for the first time. It was juried in and hung in the 2010 show. 

Then it was selected for the book 500 Traditional Quilts, published in 2014, featuring the best traditional quilts being made at the time. And it was included in the Special Exhibit of many of those quilts at International Quilt Festival Houston in 2014. 

My friendship with the late Sue Garman means more to me than I can describe. This quilt started it and she taught me so much over the  next almost 9 years I was honored and lucky enough to share this Earth with her. Including how to make pieced borders fit a quilt by using "Floater Borders". I have a Tutorial here explaining that process that I include on my blog with her permission.

The other thing this quilt gave me is the title for my blog. When I decided to start a blog at the end of 2010 it was easy to name it "My Joyful Journey". Quilting should be fun and joyous and filled with the beauty of luscious fabrics and inspiring design. It certainly is for me.

Let's quilt.

Barbara