Putting a quilt in

Yesterday, Myra Tallman helped me put the second meditation panel into the quilt frame. She has an easy method that uses a simple frame made from 4 pieces of 1" x 3" wood clamped together. She uses T pins to pin the backing to the fabric supports. All the backings of these meditation panels are made from re-purposed damask linen table cloths and have Marimekko fabric in their centres. Myra works much more quickly and efficiently than I do as she has practice. She estimates that she has put about 300 of her own and other women's quilts into frames. Once the backing is t-pinned correctly, the bamboo batting is just laid on top, followed by the pieced quilt top. The top is then pinned snuggly to the stretched back with regular pins. The second pair of hands in the above photo belong to Myrna, who joined us. Later, I hand basted the edges and removed the pins so that everything was ready for Thursday. This panel is nearly 100" square, larger than the first one. I look forward now to months of hand quilting.

Thank you Myra, for passing on your skill. It's inspirational.

"I want to die quilting" Myra Tallman