This post was mostly written in July but I never got around to getting a good picture of the quilt to include. It’s title was “Oops, I made another quilt!” but that no longer seems to fit the circumstances. This quilt did come somewhat effortlessly in the days while we were preparing–cleaning and organizing–for James’ visit from New Zealand.

Although life has been busy lately, I’ve found myself stopping and piecing little bits of my latest quilt and all of a sudden I’ve found a quilt top mostly pieced. Quilting in little spurts can be a great motivator between the many jobs I have on my to-do-list. It’s a lot easier to face loads of laundry and innumerable cleaning/organizing tasks if I promise myself a few minutes at the sewing machine between tasks. I made the first “A square” and before I knew it four of them were completed.

I couldn’t resist trying out the “B squares” that would connect the four completed squares and add the color blue to the quilt. Before I knew it the main part of the quilt was put together and I started trying out the outer borders that would make it all come together. I put the last row on at the cottage–and love it.

This quilt is another tartan. I started out becoming interested in making a Bruce tartan once I found it in my grandmother’s old book of tartans. Anne’s New Zealand boyfriend is James Bruce, a descendent (he says) of Robert the Bruce, the first king of an independent Scotland. Anne told me that it is too soon in their relationship to make a quilt for James, so I decided to make a baby quilt for one of his brothers and his wife, also friends of Anne, who were expecting a baby. Since the Bruce tartan listed in the Scottish Register of Tartans comes in both red/green and blue/green, I asked Anne which would be James’ favorite colors. She said definitely blue and green so I started looking for fabrics. When I saw this sheep fabric in blue and green it was a no-brainer that this would make the perfect quilt for them as James and his brothers grew up on a sheep farm. I had fun designing and making the quilt and really, really liked it. (I think it looks better “in person” than in the pictures.) As frequently happens, I wanted one for myself and planned to make a second one sometime down the road. James solved that problem for me the morning I completed the quilt top: I showed it to him and explained that it was the Bruce Tartan. He matter-of-factly stated that the Bruce tartan is red, not blue. I explained how clans often had both dress tartans and field or hunting tartans. He was not to be deterred. “Ben’s kilt is red.” I then learned–to my delight–that his brother Ben learned to play the bagpipe (from his grandfather Christie) and competed in competitions, in full kilt attire. Later that day I decided that if I am going to make a Bruce Tartan quilt for anyone in James’ family, it probably should be red. Problem solved: I will make another quilt in the same design in red and green and keep this one that I like so much. It was an easy decision to make since I’d recently noted that the sheep fabric comes in Blue, Green and Red.

I ordered more fabric and have been looking for coordinating fabrics ever since.

James has now returned to New Zealand, along with our daughter Anne, who will be starting a 15 month internship in Youth Ministry at the church she attended while a student at Capernwray. We had a crazy, fun, whirlwind kind of summer and I haven’t done any quilting at all for two months. I have, however, written a few blogs so I’ll be posting them over the next few days.  I