The Glory of Lauren

I know the title of this post is a little self aggrandizing, but I think all my fellow Stixers know by now that you just can't keep me (or my highly inflated ego) down. So, I'm going to roll with it.

But, getting to the point of this post...about two months ago, a little before Thanksgiving, I suppose, when I was visiting my parents in Volcano, my mom suggested I learn how to do something new - expand my horizons in the quilting world. I approached this suggestions with equal parts excitement and trepidation. Excitement because I was going to learn something new, I was going to get to work on a more complicated project and really show off my quilting skills. The trepidation came from the fear that I would suck at it. I'm sure you all know how Joyce Moser is by now though. There was no way I was going to get around learning foundation piecing now that she had set her mind to teaching me.

In the interest of saving my sanity, I quickly agreed to give it a try and asked what she had in mind.  Immediately she whipped out a book - her Bible on paper piecing - and showed me a small wall hanging project that she thought would be perfect to get me started on to see if I liked this new technique. Well, I was horrified. It was the ugliest thing I had ever seen. How could my mother think that I would want to make that?? As I looked over the photo (done in navy, brown, brick red, and weird plaids) I felt a little sick to my stomach, but tried to quell the feeling and pretend enthusiasm for mom's sake at least. I think my disgust must have shown on my face though because she quickly assured me that she thought it was hideous as well and that I would definitely be using better colors. Attempting to look past the horrific conglomeration of fabrics, I soon noticed that the pattern itself was actually quite beautiful and, if done correctly, could be quite stunning.

And so, during that trip home, Mom and I went on a mission to collect fabrics for my new project. We chose to match the colors to my home and went with reds, grays, and a beautiful black, white, and red floral background. Once we had all the requisite fabrics, we returned home and Mom showed me how to get started. I couldn't believe the simplicity of paper foundation piecing. Here I had been for months watching Mom post beautiful pictures of her foundation piecing on the Stix site, thinking to myself, "Wow, Mom is so talented and amazing. I could never do anything like that!" and yet, it was the simplest thing in the world!

I returned to Portland the next day and got to work. Every weekend I would work on one of the pieces of my star and soon I had them all done. When I returned home to Volcano over Christmas, all the pieces were ready to assemble. Little did I know however, that I was just now getting to the hard part. You see, as Mom pointed out in her post on her Unusual Lone Star, the difficult part of the foundation piecing process is "setting in" your background fabrics to make the whole. Even with Mom's helpful tips, it took me an entire day and seemingly endless ripping to get it together to my satisfaction. But together it is and now it is all ready for me to quilt. Yes, that's right, fellow Stixers. I will now be testing my free motion quilting skills and will quilt this puppy myself. :) So wish me luck and I will keep you updated on the final component of my project!