This past month I have been working on a quilt that will go in the Northwest Quilting Expo in September.  Jeri our fearless leader had chosen a theme about the Pearl District in Portland.  She read from a article in the Oregonian about how the Pearl was named.

It was a story about a man named Thomas and how he met Pearl, in which the District is named after.

These words inspired me to make this quilt and these are the words that I quilted in the dark empty space.

Pearl was from the Amhara region of Ethiopia, a tall, striking woman with skin "the color of a dark pecan shells.. . . she spoke to me in French and gave me her hand and I fainted. She was so beautiful and it was hot that night and I was only 19." Thomas stayed up all night talking to Pearl. That night forged a friendship between Thomas and Pearl, the altruistic, well-read woman who, Thomas remembers, always smelled like gardenias. It was a friendship that lasted 31 years until Pearl's death.
Thomas still misses the woman who was his friend for 31 years. "At night sometimes I smell gardenias, and I feel like she's still here."

Today I had the pleasure of quilting this baby quilt for one of my best friends.  She made this for her mothers caregiver.  I had so much fun with circles, in the ditch work and using my computer to have the quilting machine quilt ABC's and 1,2,3's.  Plus we even spelled out a couple of the little animals that were in the blocks. 

Preparing your quilt for machine quilting.

• Piece your top carefully.  The flatter the top is, the better it will quilt up.
  
• Trim away any stray threads on the top as well as the backing.
  
  
• Press your top and backing carefully.
  
• Your backing will loaded onto  the machine with the seams running horizontal.
  
• Backing must be at least 4” longer on all sides.
  
• Ensure your backing is square (90degree corners parallel to sides).  Wonky edges are hard to attach to the quilting machine.
  
• Don’t pin or baste your quilt.
  
• If your top is directional, mark the top edge with a pin and a sticky note stating so.
  
• Remove any embellishments.  Reattach them after the quilting is complete.
  
• Leave the cutting of scalloped edges until after the quilting is complete.
  
• Stay stitch 1/8” around pieced border to prevent seams from opening.

My son spent 2 years in Africa as a Peace Corp volunteer.  He brought back this mud cloth from the region that he visited.  His girlfriend asked me to make it into a warm quilt.  It has a wool batt.

This is Jenny's quilt  She made it from Marathon T-shirts.  I love the neon colors.

Spent some time Doodling around with the quilting machine the other day and this is what happened.  Fun stuff.

This UFO is now finished.  I'm calling it Hydrangea.