Hey, Hey. Look where I am today.

My first little piece of "fancy" quilting is in the Wednesday quilt show from Jennifer at Forty-two quilts. Imagine my surprise when I scrolled down and saw a quilt from my friend Pauline, a fellow Texan, posted just below mine. She had shared the picture with me before, so I thought I was seeing a double, until I read that it was indeed the same quilt. We didn't even talk to one another before we submitted them to Jennifer. Ha!

Makes me wish I'd named this little quilt. This is a skill builder from 2009.

In 2007, my mentor sold me her mother's Bernina 930 and helped me go from a beginner to an advanced quilter in a very short time. She spent time helping me select fabrics for quilts, helping me learn skills and techniques for assembly, how to care for my stash and how to buy wisely so that I could shop the stash for years to come without fabrics that quickly go out of style. She helped me with color combination and we would meet and sew. She even sponsored me by providing most of the fabric for our Indian Orange Peel quilts that we haven't finished.

This little orange wholecloth was one of the first pieces I quilted on that machine. It is from one template. The template contains half the design. Two years after I did this one, I wanted to see how my machine quilting skills had developed and I created the yellow one above. It was the first thing I had quilted that was so complex.

Right now, I'm working on one of my mentor's UFO's that she gave me. She started it many years ago and when she shared it, she couldn't remember why she stopped working on it, but thought I might be able to use the leftover fabrics in my Linus quilts.

Phooey on that. I have plenty of fabric I can donate to Linus. I want to finish this. I've had it for at least two years, during which it has hung in my sewing room closet, WFS (waiting for skill) to complete it.

There was no pattern included and all she could remember is that it was supposed to be two circles, but I'm going to join them and make a figure 8. She had already assembled big chunks of it and I've assembled what you see in the upper left corner from "strata" that she had pieced. Now, I'll work on the lower right. And, then, I'll cut some new sections to go in the join so the transition won't be so obvious.

Life seems to have gotten in the way of quilting for my mentor. Last time we talked, her machine had been in the attic for almost a year and she hadn't sewn anything. And, unfortunately, I didn't keep following up and I didn't press to find out what was up. I think it might be time for a handwritten card...or maybe an email will do. Maybe one with a link to this post.

Okay, that's it for me today. Happy Wednesday everybody. Lane