NEW HOBBY...Uh-oh!

Ever since I can remember I have wanted to try to make a quilt. Over the last five years I have had the privilege to be friends with a wonderful lady who happens to be a fabulous quilter so I have gleaned a few lessons here and there. This is one of 20 quilts that were made for our preschool teachers for Teacher Appreciation week. I took my baby steps helping my friend Cindy make these quilts by tracing hands, cutting hands,cutting squares, ironing the Wonder Under hands to other blocks, sewing strips together, and helping with the binding. At this point I was more than willing to let Cindy do the zig-zag stitching around the appliqued hands as it scared me to pieces to try. Needless to say, the quilts were a tremendous hit with the teachers and many tears of joy and amazement were shared. All this just fed my desire to make a quilt all on my own.

I have gotten my photos out of order as this is my third quilt ever and only the second to be done from start to finish by me...not to mention the largest quilt project completed by my two little hands. This quilt represents the hands of our church's youth group and Sunday School children. Our pastor and his family will be moving on to another church and we thought this was a great way for them to take a little piece of St. James UMC with them.It's hard to see in this picture, but on the border my friend Cindy quilted the prayer that Pastor Hunter ended each meeting with the youth: "May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen". Other than Cindy quilting the prayer on the border, this is 100% handcrafted by Dawn.

My second ever quilt project but first done completely by me. I made two identical quilts for my 4 year old's preschool teachers Mrs. Keely and Mrs. Vicki. These are the hands of the Dinofours class hence the dinosaur fabric! This was a very straight forward project and I am so proud to say it was done ALL by me...whoo hoo! I tried something a little different by making the binding out of all the fabrics used in the body of the quilt rather than the solid black on the preschool staff or Pastor's quilts. I have always been my own worst critic and rarely like 100% of anything I make, however this is an exception. I LOVE what I did for Keely, Vicki and the Preston family and hope to make many quilts in the future. My dear friend Cindy, you may have created a quilting monster and for that I thank you!! I thank you all for stopping by for a look and please leave a comment if you are inclined.