Designing patterns that is. This may sound a little harsh, but it would be one solution to my problem. I quilt for a group of friends, who I think make every series/multi-block quilt quilt McKenna puts out under the pattern name Pine Needles. Don’t get me wrong, I think these quilts are beautiful. In fact I own patterns for at least two of the multi-block quilts. However, I have begun to seriously doubt I will ever make one of them, because I am so sick of quilting them. What’s the big deal you may ask? All you have to do is put a little quilting in the background and do the borders. Not so for this group. They have decided it is too much work to stitch down the applique pieces as McKenna instructs in her patterns. Instead they just fuse all the pieces and it is my job to stitch them all down while I am quilting. OK, you say, that might be some work, but just load monofilament thread and get the job down. Oh, that it were so easy. This group prefers cotton thread and matching the fabric. This results in easily 30 -60 thread changes per quilt. Still if it were only one of each quilt it wouldn’t be so bad, but I get to do three or four of each quilt in this manner. Last year I finally created a price category just for Pine Needles quilts that hadn’t been stitched down. The price is double what I charge for custom work, but it doesn’t seem to phase them. Perhaps it is time to make it triple.
This rant came to mind because I just finished quilting either my third or fourth “Rhythm of the Sea” quilt. This is actually one of the easier ones because there are fewer colors. If you think it doesn’t look too bad from the front, take a look at the back(Click to view full size pictures). I don’t even change the thread colors on the back every time I change them on the front.
Just to prove how many of these I’ve quilted I’m including pictures of them here. I have stopped taking pictures of the duplicates so you only get to see one of each.
“In Full Bloom”
“When Friends Gather”
“Storybook Farm”
“Petals of My Heart”
“At Home in the Woods”
In addition to those pictured I’ve also done “Calling Me Home, ” “A Season in Time,” and “A Journey to Light,”
OK so maybe not every series/multi-group quilt McKenna has designed, but when you do three or four of each, it sure feels like it. I’ve quilted several of the smaller quilts for this group as well.
Lest someone get their nose bent out of shape, please be aware much of what I’ve written in this post has been tongue in cheek.
P.S. While I was getting the link for Pine Needles for this post I saw McKenna has a new series quilt I really like. We’ll see how I feel after I see it three times.
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