Seriously. It’s hard work. FIVE YEARS of work, in fact.


circles quilted, background started

It’s such an awesome pattern–called Love Beads–and is from the book The Modern Quilt Workshop by Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle of Funquilts. (The book is one of my favorites–it was one of the first things that really sparked my interest in making modern patchwork.)

I pieced the top back in the fall of 2004, and started quilting it sometime over that winter. I wanted to be all ambitious with the hand quilting, so I had the brilliant idea to free hand, thin spirals in all the circles. And while it looks GREAT, I burned out on it quickly. It’s been sitting, collecting dust and pet fur ever since.


detail of the spiral quilting

It’s one of those projects that I felt really guilty about leaving there. I really thought it had the potential to be a fantastic finished quilt, but the idea of hand quilting THAT much….ugh. No thanks.

In keeping with my post from a few weeks ago, I’ve just been trying to weigh out what I REALLY want to be making these days. For the past few years I’ve focused my energy into making items for craft shows and Etsy, and while I still enjoy doing that, I really came to the conclusion that I’ve not finished much for myself over that time. Between really slow sales at shows and online (which is depressing when it’s all that you foucs on), I decided it was time to get back to quilting circles.

And you know what? I enjoyed it.


backside, so far

The circles are done, and I’m on to the major task of finishing this bad boy off. I’ve started marking out my diagonal stripes that will serve as the background. To my surprise, it’s moving fast. I’m hoping at this point I can have the quilting finished off by the end of March. It’s going to be a stretch, but I think it’s possible.

That way, no one can tell me that I don’t finish what I start.

3 Thoughts on “making a quilt takes FOREVER.

  1. I have plans to make a love beads quilt someday … yours is going to be fabulous. Kudos to you for picking it up and persevering.

  2. I LOVE the quilting on here!! I am working on a quilt with circles on it and this is the quilting design I am mulling over. Either that or concentric circles. But I have 16 huge circles and don’t know if I want to put that kind of effort into it. You have me leaning toward doing it! Your quilt looks amazing.

  3. You do a fantastic job on quilting by hand!
    But don´t bother about that it took a while to get back to work on the quilt – I´ve inherited a quilt-top, which was started back in the 80´s – and still is unfinished (no finished quilting , no binding). You see, compared to this quilt, your quilt will be finished superquick ;o))

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