I am doing “Cartwheels” here!

Well Laura sent me this quilt for LAQ….and I have to say I LOVE this quilt like no other! I honestly do..I have cried, I have laughed, I have doubted I tried to send it back….LOL.

This pattern is called “Cartwheels” By Tula Pink. Laura used Kaffe fabrics….( One of my Favorites)

Laura doesn’t usually send me pictures of her quilts before they arrive..nor does she tell me what they are..I have to wait and see when they arrive.  She always makes quilts that I would personally make for myself so it’s always a treat. When I pulled this one out of the box..I knew exactly what it was because I have looked a Tula’s pattern many times..LOL. Laura told me she wanted to discuss the quilting on this quilt.

When she started telling me I didn’t get what she was saying….I am such a  visual person..if I can see something I can “Click it”  ….I then said “Maybe you should  have a computer quilter quilt this for you?” She responded with A loud “Are you kidding?” She kindly encouraged me to go ahead and quilt. LOL Sometimes I need a push….I am like everyone else and I buckle under pressure. Then she sent me a picture from the original “Cartwheel” quilt that was quilted by Tula’s Quilter here . I am not sure if that was helpful. LOL I tend to want to stay away from pictures of other people’s quilting because I don’t want any pre-concieved ideas…I want my quilts to have my flavor..right? But Angela happens to be a fabulous quilter with much more experience than I have…so that made me again want to back out of the job.

So then I was trying to dissect exactly how Laura envisioned the quilt….we were going to make it different except for the flower in the center of the block. I know Laura likes pebbling so that was going to be my filler…..I struggled with the design in the blades after a few attempts I got what she was envisioning….as soon as I got it and she approved it I felt GREAT! to understand what someone has envisioned and be able to accomplish it….That is a HUGE deal! for me! I had to repeat, re-state TO MYSELF until I understood, sketch it and the execute…hehe.

I knew as soon as I saw the cartwheels and the way the pattern is constructed…I thought that if I took the seam lines from the cartwheels out to the edge of each block all the lines would match up to the lines of the blocks around it..forming that slight “V” and I needed to play that up because that doesn’t happen often. So I wanted to alternate designs..pebbling and the little leaves and swirls in the opposite …not only did I alternate the designs within the wheels…but also against each other wheel so there is always a fracture of design from all sides..I knew this would create a pattern within a pattern..after I got the first row finished ( each row was half a row wheels) …I gave Laura the update…Then she said something like “Ok..what are we doing for center designs?” My heart fell.  I tried to tell her in my best way what I had envisioned with this design..and bless her heart….she said “keep going” She trusted me. In the end when I finished last night…I cried ( for a couple reasons). But she said it was just as she had envisioned. That was the best things she could have said! LOL It was such a collaboration…we had to trust eachother. Her to trust me more than for me to trust her… I had to trust her judgement that she had so much confidence in me..LOL! In all honesty, If Laura wasn’t a precise piecer I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish that…her piecing is perfect….if you have wonky seems or anything..those lines won’t match.

During this process I learned so much….This is the biggest quilt that I have ever quilted this heavily..and I am pretty sure it’s going to cost a fortune to ship back home..  it’s really heavy! I learned so much along the way…about myself, people and quilting. I grew with this job and I learned lessons along the way..I gained some confidence…in how I relate to people and how forgiving Laura is..LOL the many emails and pictures along the way.

Laura had said a few times that she didn’t want to interfere with the artist…well I just have to say in the end..It’s not my quilt. I am borrowing a canvas from the owner..so I really just want people to be happy with their quilts. It’s not about my vision it’s about who ever owns the quilt. So I can’t just take over and do what I want..unless the owner doesn’t have a vision.  I am stretched when I have to interpret and execute someone else’s vision….in this case it worked out..Thank YOU LAURA!

As for the pictures….the threads are going to be buried by Laura when she gets it back….I used two different kinds of batting in this quilt…one layer of “soft and bright” from The Warm Company..and also a layer of polydown batting. White thread through the whole quilt….

Thanks everyone!