School House

Well, this quilt has been long in coming!  It has quite the story behind it too.  So, let's begin.

There are a few posts about this quilt and it is best to start at the beginning and you can click onto them here to read about the start and the progress along the way:

Mar. 2, 2011 .... May 23, 2011 .... June 16, 2011 .... June 25, 2011 .... Jan. 19, 2013 ....  Jan. 30, 2013 .... Mar. 30, 2013

There could be others, but I couldn't find them at the time of writing up this post.

After this top was finished, it sat for many years.  Why?  Hand quilt or machine quilt?  That was my hang up.  In the end, it was sent to my lovely LAer and she did her magic very quickly and then it sat waiting for binding.  Enter no-blog Mary and our monthly binding challenge and ..... viola ..... this quilt is finally done and hanging in our dinning room.  Oh, such joy to finally have this gorgeous quilt finished.

Now, after reading all those posts, there is a titbit that was never written about, but it is time to talk about it.

I've given credit to Andrea Blackhurst as the designer of this quilt pattern.  She may be the designer as per the quilt in the quilt magazine, but I based my quilt on that raffle quilt at the Kingston, Ontario, Canada quilt show and they based their quilt on an antique quilt. So, IMHO, I do think the original designer is the person who made that antique quilt.

When Andrea contacted me and claimed she was the designer .... fine .... I'm happy for her and she designed a gorgeous quilt and I've since amended a few of my posts to give her credit.  She also mentioned to me that if ever I wrote a pattern for sale, she would sue me.  Oh my .... 

If you have been a reader of my blog for many years now ..... never, ever have I offered any of my designs or drafts of quilts for sale.  I think I was tested not too long ago if there was a pattern for this quilt.  Was she a friend of Andrea's?  I was suspicious at the time.  Anyway, there is not a pattern for sale and there will never be from me.  Instead, I did a tutorial and it is on the link for June 25, 2011.

If you are interested in a pattern, Sentimental Stitches has a pattern for the houses and you can purchase it here.  Gay did this quilt as a free BOM and then retired it and then brought it back for purchase.  I knew that Gay would have her pattern for sale at some point and gave her a head's up about potentially being sued by Andrea.  Gay wrote back and said that she had a team of lawyers to work out any copyright issues.  After she looked at my posts, Gay thought that my quilt was different from Andrea's and I could claim it as my design.  Thank you and that was a surprise comment!

So, I will leave it up to you who is the designer .... but .... I think I will just enjoy my efforts and the struggles and simply enjoy my quilt .... as a quilt.

Quilt Details:

Started:  Feb. 2011

Finished:  Dec. 2022

Block size:  12" finished and 6" finished

Quilt size: 81-1/2" x 83-1/4" (top size before quilting, washing and drying: 85" x 86")

Batting:  Hobbs cotton/poly 80/20

Machine quilted by:  Kathy Wareham using Clam shell Feather by Christy Dillon of My Creative Stitches.  

I enjoy designing quilts and also making quilts from a pattern (usually with some kind of twist) and credit is given to the designer of those patterns.   That's it ..... I just love making quilts.  Not selling them, not going into pattern writing, etc.  That is way too much work.  Writing a tutorial takes a lot of time and effort and I no longer write those anymore.

I have seen some of my designs or part of my designs published by others.  Intentional?  Who knows.  I'm not going to send those folks threatening emails.   A few bloggers have approached me and asked permission to make and publish a pattern from one of my designs.  They were given permission and I have received a finished pattern as a 'thank you'.  I was happy for them.   As you probably have guessed, I'm a giving sort of person and not spiteful.  Life is too short.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!