Call me the Quilt Doctor

So today I graduated from quilting medical school and performed emergency quilt surgery.

My friends and I have been working on a quilt for our friend who is moving. It is a picture quilt, so it's a little delicate. We've been trying really hard not to iron over any of the photos on the quilt, since that ruins them. We were doing really well, just one little nick. But then this morning I got the quilt out to sew the final border on, and I noticed that the same picture with the little nick- well, now it had a huge gash across the face. It was actually a good thing, because we were going to leave the little nick, but now we had to replace the picture, so it looked much better.

The major problem was that we didn't have any leftover fabric to make a new block. So I tried first to iron the whole thing off, but that didn't work so well. So I had to pick out the square. I was able to do it without too much unpicking. I hate unpicking seams more than just about any part of sewing, so I avoid it at all costs.

This is what the square looked like. Not acceptable.

I then turned over the ruined square, and I just pasted a new picture on the back side of it. It turned out quite well.

Then I had to sew it back into the quilt. It all was much easier than it could have been.

In the end, I managed to save the quilt's life. Recovery was quick, and it was in a box and out the door for our friend.

Now, we wanted to give it to her today, because it was the last time that the whole group would be together before she left, it was her son's birthday. The little technicality of the quilt not actually being completed, well, that wasn't all that important.

We ended up presenting her with the completed quilt top, and then this week we'll quilt it, and bind it, and then give it back to her. But it was nice to let everyone see the finished product.

Her reaction kind of speaks for itself.

This gives you an idea of what the quilt looks like. I'll post a finished picture when we get it quilted and bound.