9/19 We had been trying to decide what we could make for this particular family and came up with the idea of making a friendship or album quilt. We knew that the mother of the family really liked a particular blue fabric, so the same day we went to a fabric store and picked out the fabrics. The blue fabric with the tiny pattern all over it was the fabric that she liked, but the only fabric that we could find to match it was the floral fabric pictured below. At first we thought that the floral pattern would be much too large for the tiny squares that we had planned on with the Double Irish Chain Pattern, but after looking at it a bit we thought that it would work. The pictures below do not accurately show the colors, but at least give an idea of what it was like. The blue was almost a periwinkle color in some lights (several people thought it was purple), but also had a certain brightness to it that is very cheerful-looking. In the first picture the floral fabric looks a bit duller than it is in actuality.

10/1 After picking out the fabric it was several weeks before we actually decided on the details of the quilt. On this date we started working on the layout of the quilt as far as the embroidery went. We had purposed to make the quilt with embroidery on every large white center block, so we started planning out what would be written on each one. Quite a few of them had signatures, but we also had phrases, verses, etc. that we incorporated. We eventually made a map, which was very helpful, using Excel with the whole layout of the quilt, so that we could reference it and know which embroidered block should be placed where. Below, the Coghlan girls are holding up the map. :)

10/3 We had received most of the people's signatures who were involved. We cut out squares of paper that were slightly smaller than the squares that we would embroider (to ensure that we would have a nice border) and drew a base line so that all of the signatures would be fairly centered (from top to bottom). Then we traced the signatures onto the fabric, making sure that we also centered them left to right. We finished the embroidery on five of the other squares and had three more started. One of these was a square that Mama started on after practicing her name on a scrap piece of fabric. She hadn't embroidered for years, so she did a test piece and then helped with some of the embroidered squares as well.

We traced the signatures with a fine point fabric pen which has ink that can be removed easily by water. As soon as we finished the embroidery, we put the square in a small bowl of water, patted it dry, and then ironed it.

10/27 On this date we had completed the embroidery for approximately 40 of the blocks.

10/28 One of the blocks had the 10 Commandments embroidered on it. This was probably the most tedious block because the letters had to be very tiny and even.

10/29-30 We had a few squares still left to embroider. While one of us was still embroidering, one of us machine-pieced the blocks together. Our goal was to finish the embroidery by the end of October. I think that we finished a day or two later.

11/3 On this date we made use of a large room with lots of floor space (something we are very lacking in!) and put the layers of the quilt together. We wanted to hand-quilt it and were going to use one of the new plastic frames that snap together, so in order to keep all of the layers securely together and wanting to make sure that they did not slip, we basted the layers together. This took several hours but was well worth the effort. The backing was made of three pieces of fabric sewn together so that it would be wide enough (and was of of the same blue fabric with the tiny design that we used in the chain). We had cut the backing several inches larger on all sides than the quilt top was so that we would have enough fabric to roll the edges. The batting was several inches larger, too, as usual.

After laying the backing with the right side to the floor, and making sure that it was flat and stretched evenly, we taped it to the carpet, and then layed the batting over it. Next we placed the batting over it [for this quilt we used a very light weight thickness in a king-sized roll that we had on hand]. Then we centered the quilt top over these layers with the right side facing up.

Then we basted through all of the quilt layers every couple of inches across the entire quilt. You can see the faint basting lines in the picture below.

Then we rolled the edges of the quilt. Rolling the edges of the quilt and basting them was very helpful and we thought that it was great in keeping the quilt top cleaner and free from fraying of the edges.

In this picture you can see the quilt with some of the edges still rolled and some edges have had the basting stitches on the edge removed and have been unrolled.

The same evening we began the quilting! We quilted straight lines through each of the three chains, and quilted a motif on point (like a diamond) in the center of each large white block. The motif was a heart/loop design that was very easy and could be quilted continuously until the motif was completed. We traced it with the same fine-point pen and afterwards used a damp cloth to pat the squares until the color was removed, then let it air dry.

11/4 We quilted about 5 of the blocks, including the center one. We started in the middle and worked out from there so that the quilt wouldn't get uneven and wrinkled if the layers slipped a bit.

Below is a picture of the center block. Some of the embroidery has been intentionally blurred in the following pictures since some of the squares contain names and signatures.

11/5 Some friends of ours, the Manteufels, came over to spend the afternoon with us and two of the daughters helped us with the quilting. We got several squares done and had lots of fun doing it together as we talked.

11/6 We were approximately 1/5 of the way done with the quilting. The following picture is of a quilted block (the signature has been cut out, which is why there is a rectangular, quilted-looking area in the center).

11/10 We were 1/4 of the way done with the quilting!

11/13 Mrs. Gobart helped us quilt. It is always twice the fun to quilt with others.

We used the self-timer feature to take these pictures. :)

11/18 Mrs. Gobart quilted with us again. By the end of the day we were almost 2/3 of the way done. This time she taught us two rounds, so we enjoyed singing while we quilted.

11/20 Deanna, Kaitlyn, & Lydia Coghlan all took their 1st quilting stitches. As you can see, we used masking tape to help us keep our stitches straight through the center of each chain.

Deanna is left-handed as you can see. She did a nice job, though we weren't very good teachers since we are not very good at left-handed quilting. :)

Kaitlyn did an excellent job. She watched while I showed her how I wanted her to quilt, using an easier method for tiny fingers and she paid very close attention.

Kaitlyn was very patient and would not bring her needle all the way up through the quilt layers until she had taken a stitch almost as tiny as mine. We were amazed at her accuracy, which we were not expecting at all.

Lydia did a great job, too. She also showed great perseverance and made very neat little stitches as her older sisters had. It was fun seeing the girls put their first stitches on the quilt!

12/3 We quilted while talking to some friends of ours. Their little girl, Mary, took her 1st quilting stitches, too.

Rachel and Mary.

Ruth, quilting.