Be An Unorthodox Quilter - And Love It!

OK, I admit it. I don’t like to stay within the lines. I don’t like to follow a recipe exactly. I don’t like to follow a pattern exactly. I think that’s a good thing. My hubby disagrees, though, and will sometimes tell me, "These cookies are perfect! Write down what you did and don’t change it!" Yeah, right.

Which brings us to piecing blocks on the serger. Yes, the serger. I know it’s unusual, but that’s the fun of it!

The blocks for this quilt, with the exception of the half-square triangles, were pieced on the serger. We have traveled a lot, and have been in a lot (a whole lot) of casinos. I like to play the slot machines; hubby likes the Blackjack table. I decided to take the serger with us to Harrah’s Hotel and Casino in Tunica, MS. Then, if the slots weren’t being good to me, I could pursue my favorite hobby.

There’s some great things about traveling with a serger:

• No bobbins.
• Big cones of thread mean not having to pack thread.
• It is not as big nor as heavy as the sewing machine.

So, while His Nibs was downstairs winning (one can hope) on the Blackjack table, I was in the room with the ironing board set up, the TV on and my serger on the table just sewing up a storm. Maybe a small bottle of Scotch was involved. This arrangement made us both happy.

I believe this quilt to be an original pattern; it is hard to say for sure, since you never know where you might have gotten the inspiration. And how much you might have changed the pattern.

I worked on this quilt while our grandson, a Marine, was deployed in Iraq during the first few months of 2003. I designed it for him. It makes no sense, but I felt as long as I was sewing on his quilt, he would be safe.

And he was! We gave the quilt to him in 2003 when he was home on leave.