The Second Time Around

I made the top to this piece several years ago, when I took my first class with Caryl Bryer Fallert, and I was really happy with the way it turned out.  Because I had done very little free motion quilting at that point, I procrastinated about finishing it -- I was certain that I would ruin it.  I finally realized that, no matter how many practice sandwiches I had completed, I had to bite the bullet and quilt a "real" piece.  Thinking I was being very smart, I decided to use monofilament thread in the needle and black cotton thread in the bobbin, to match the solid black backing;  this way (I told myself), my mistakes wouldn't be so obvious.

I was never happy with the finished result, so when Colleen Skiff of the Fulton Street Gallery requested this piece for her upcoming show, "Fiber: Strings and Vines," I decided it was a sign from the Quilt Gods: I had to re-quilt it.  My sweetheart-of-a-husband was drafted into the process of ripping out the stitches (remember: they were made with INVISIBLE thread on the front and BLACK thread on the BLACK backing), and together we removed them all (not too much grumbling occurred -- I consider myself a lucky woman).  I used King Tut 40-weight variegated cotton with a coordinated 50-weight cotton in the bobbin, and I was so pleased with the way it turned out . . .

 . . . that I went a little crazy on the label.