I’m easily distracted. I love to start projects, but sometimes other obligations (or newer projects) call, and this gets put aside for that. Sometimes the “this” languishes.
Buttonwood Farm is a wool appliqué project (adapted from Maggie Bonanomi’s book by the same name) which I was anxious to have hanging in my dining room. To help ensure it was finished in a timely manner, I entered it into our local quilt show.
I finished the applique (some cotton and some felted wool on linen) weeks ago, knowing it “wouldn’t take much time” to quilt a project 43” square. As the show approached, I checked other things off the to-do list: help with layout of the show floor, format and type booklet for the show, add sleeves to several other projects entered in the show. Buttonwood Farm’s quilting kept getting postponed.
On Saturday, March 12, before the show was to be hung on Thursday, March 17, I pinbasted the quilt top to the batting and backing. A few hours home alone that day meant I got the interior section of the quilt outlined and some filler designs done immediately. In the next few days, sitting down to quilt gave me focus for a few hours, distracting me from the anxiety of the upcoming show. Stitching soothes me.
On Wednesday, March 16, I added a binding, sleeve, and label. Whew! But after a ribbon was attached, I saw stray threads hanging. One of our vendors loaned me some scissors to do a little pruning.
Oh, and I was “busted” during the awards ceremony. The project was so fresh that I had forgotten its name and thought they meant the ribbon was going to a friend’s project with a similar title. But now the quilt is finished and can hang in my dining room.
Details of quilt: Cotton and felted wool appliqué on linen. Quilted with Aurafil 50 wt cotton thread. Dream wool batting. The name “Buttonwood Farm” is Maggie’s. I stuck with it when I investigated and found that buttonwood and sycamore were both common names for Platens occidentals. My hometown of Sycamore was founded in 1891, so I changed the date on my rendition.
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