It's the Giving that feels good!

From Quilts I Make

My 83 year old Mother in Law lives in a retirement home and has made a very good friend there, Miss Charlene.  They talk, they walk, they watch TV together.  They share everything! It's almost like sisters -- very sweet, and good, and loving.

Miss Charlene is going to move.  Her son has moved to a different part of the city and has found a new closer place for her to live.  Both my Mother in Law and Miss Charlene are devastated. 

The quilt above was a mystery quilt that I did a couple of years ago.  It was all pinned and ready for me to quilt - I just never did.  This must be the reason - it was waiting for just the right person to give it to.  Miss Charlene! 

Now I'm not a good free-motion quilter,, but I keep trying. 
So, Self, how can I get the design on this one that a good long-arm quilter does?  I have  free motion designs, but how do I get them to the quilt, cause I sure can NOT do it without tracing something

AAHH,, self I say, copy those designs to paper then stitch thru the paper! 
AAHH!  Freezer paper is big and wide, that should work --  ???!
 I traced the design and pinned the papers to the quilt top, so far so good.  I sewed thru the paper and that worked well.  < I'm getting better with my stitches being uniform - that's good!>
  But freezer paper is heavy so turning the quilt around was difficult at times which didn't help getting some good curves.  But that's ok, I'm Learning!

I told self to remember that --  freezer paper is big, but heavy.

Time to tear off the paper.  Freezer paper DOES NOT tear easily.  and, Tearing made some stitches come loose.  Not good.  So I tore off what I could, then figured when I was all done, I could WASH them away! < yeah yeah! that will work good! Paper dissolves good in water! >
But I can't do this until I'm all done with the borders or binding.
For the border, I sure didn't want to use freezer paper again, so I had some Solvy stuff and spray adhesive that I bought at the Houston Quilt Festival last year,, why not finally use it!  I copied my design, sprayed the borders and stuck it on.  It wasn't bad.  Held pretty good and was very easy to follow while I was stitching the design.  It even ripped off pretty good and where it was inbetween the stitches, all I had to do was heat up a little iron, and with heat, this stuff balled up and I just brushed it off.  VOILA!  It was pretty cool for small spaces, or borders :)

From Quilts I Make

The Back....This shows the border design - it doesn't show to be even, but it is on the front.  I had put a panel on the back with white surrounding it, but I didn't get it exactly centered.  Learning!
How did I get the paper off the front you might ask?  No, washing didn't work.  All I had was a quilt with bits of paper stuck in stitiching.  So Sunday afternoon, I sat in front of the tv with the quilt and tweezers pulling out bits of paper.

I'm learning!!

So this is the story of Miss Charlene's quilt, I hope she likes it and when she puts it on her lap to stay warm, I hope she thinks of my mother in law and how much we miss Miss Charlene!