The Hook

Last July at the Long Beach International Quilt Festival, I laid my first hook and snagged my SIL Laura to look at the kit for this quilt. She thought it would be perfect for her daughter Emma. We didn't do anything with it at that time, but I had her bring it when they came out for Christmas and after she washed the fabrics, I took the kit home to cut all the pieces. Then we had an all day sew-in when my sister was also out for Christmas. Laura now refers to that day as "Amish Day", since I kept them at this one task all day long! This was a complex quilt to lay out, but once that was accomplished and I started sewing the rows together, Laura got really excited and she took over the sewing. We got the center done and she took it back home to AZ with her, where it languished for a few months until she got a friend to help her with the borders.

The fabric was called Paris Cats and I think it was a Moda line. They now have London Cats, Italian Cats, and some other kind of cats. Very cute designs and fun modern color combos.

Laura found the perfect backing fabric at a quilt shop in AZ; while on her way to the bathroom she passed a sale rack with a bolt end of the very same line of fabrics---just enough for the backing and binding!

Laura took it to a professional longarmer who helped her pick the perfect scroll for the quilting! The longarmer actually did the binding as well. I didn't know they did that. It turned out so cute and Laura had the satisfaction of seeing an entire project come together in less than six months. Her daughter Emma loves it! Laura said her other daughter "did everything she could" to get it away from Emma, but that inspired Laura to make the brown and pink toile star quilt we put together this summer. I am happy she went home with two quilt tops all sewn, and one backing ready to assemble.