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Friday, September 28, 2012

accountability week (and the journey of a quilt)

On Monday, I invited readers to join me in an accountability project...name a project that you will finish by Friday. It's Friday, so let's check in! 
I promised to sew the binding on a quilt stitched by my daughter Gretta. DONE! Please leave a comment (and a link, if you have one) to let us all know how you fared this week. I extend a warm welcome to Kathy(small world!) and Gail, both new commenters here. I'm delighted to see those of you who have done an accountability week with me before and are back for more. To those of you who are trying it for the first time, good on'ya!

Here's the story of Gretta's lovely quilt. Last fall, Gretta spent a semester studying in Australia (via a wonderful SIT program). One of the requirements of the program was participation in an internship. Gretta took herself to Melbourne and worked with the savvy young women at Ink and Spindle, a yummy fabric printing business. You can read about Gretta's design process here. You can read about her experience at Ink and Spindle here

That beauty of a quilt top was carefully rolled up in Gretta's backpack in Australia and loaded onto a plane where it sailed over land and sea for a whole day. Gretta unrolled it here in CT and we "oohed and aahed" over it. Then it sat, waiting patiently, for months. 

In May, we pulled it out and spread it on the basting tables. To see the basting work, take a peek here. In June, it got rolled up again and trundled off to our place in Vermont.  Gretta spent the summer as a camp counselor, and enjoyed her days off with us at our bit of earth, where she spent many happy hours quilting her way through the gates of Melbourne. At the end of the summer, I offered to put on the binding, so home it came with me, back to CT. And this week, I finally DID it.

It's official now, Gretta will be graduating from college in November, a bit earlier than planned. She's already sent resumes out into the world, and depending on what happens, her quilt could go with her to...who knows where!

Please be sure to leave a comment...let us know how your project turned out (or not). ;-)

9 comments:

  1. Gretta's quilt is beautiful!

    You're welcome at http://dezondagssteek-jeanneke.blogspot.com to see how my accountability project worked out, or how I worked out on my accountability project :>)
    (Hopefully this all is proper, understandable English.)

    Cheers!

    Jeanneke.

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  2. First off, this well-traveled quilt of Gretta's is absolutely beautiful! And what a good mom you are to put the finishing touches on it!! It is truly a treasure.
    I did finish my project (because I had a deadline!!), deciding to do two pictures instead of three. As I warned you, not my usual subject matter!
    You can find them on my blog - judyhartman.blogspot.com.
    Thanks for extending the challenge again, Karen!

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  3. Didn't see your challenge to finish a long waiting project in time for a Friday deadline, but had already promised myself to fill in my PPC (personal private challenge) for the local quilt guild I joined last week. These are written and sealed and deposited with the guild and opened at the May meeting when the completed items are shared.
    Meanwhile, I hope you have another challenge in the near future so I'll have an incentive to get to some of the unfinished projects I currently have on my studio table.
    Love Gretta's quilt, its story, and that you stitched the binding. Adds that little something extra to an already extraordinary quilt.

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  4. sorry to check in so late...i did get my 2 bins emptied. lots of quilting fabric has been donated or given away or prepared for viewing and culling elsewhere. met a new neighbor today (also a quilter) and invited her for tea and to choose some fabric tomorrow. still have lots to do to be organized but am beavering away. thanks for the challenge..a deadline is great. LOVED gretta's quilt. may it journey kong and with love. xo tqoe

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  5. I didn't have time this week to complete a project, but I did finally map out a timeline for completing the book I'm working on. I have the cover designed in my head and I think I may splurge and buy Adobe Design Teacher Edition to start actually working on the layout. I have to get going on a Kickstarter proposal too. Maybe we can have a six month goal? ;-)

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  6. I read about the accountability at Jeanneke's blog. Due to internet problems I did not visit blogs these days.... I wanted to complete my Yoko Saito Quiltmystery block this week and I DID!!! Pictures on my blog today or tomorrow. yesterday evening I started immediately knittiing with the new Noro yarn I received!
    Loved to read about Gretta's travelling quilt.

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  7. Gretta's quilt is lovely! What a great opportunity she had with that internship at Ink and Spindle. Hope she'll keep quilting. As for my project, I did get the quilt top finished on Thursday night and I'm very happy with it. I'm going to try to use the leftovers to create a back for the quilt and get both to my LQS this week so the shop owner's mom can longarm it for me. Thanks, Karen, for the nudge to get it done!

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  8. The quilt turned out beautifully! Makes me want to work on my next quilt. :)

    I did finish the case for Matthias' phone (though no photographs because as soon as I sewed the last stitch he took it and started using it!), but I ran out of time for my painting. I'm ok with that, though, because I worked on other things once the weather finally worked out.

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  9. My pergola pieces are dry and assembles like a puzzle above our farmer's porch. There's a picture of it framing a beautiful morning sky at this blog post: http://escleali.blogspot.com/2012/09/im-back-with-new-plan.html
    Lovely quilt. Perhaps my next project will be something sown with all the pieces of fabric I save from old clothing, etc. Today I cut some lovely good silk/cotton pieces from a sheet that ripped through under my feet!

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