Bartering Is GOOD!

Early last spring I was going through some of my quilting UFO's and found a quilt that I had started hand quilting and it was about 25% finished. It had been sitting at that point of completion for at least 7-8 years. I knew the chances of finishing it myself were pretty slim, and it just didn't seem right to take it to a machine quilter to get the job finished after it had been started by hand. I was thinking out loud at one of my rug hooking meetings - saying how perfect it would be if I could find someone to finish the hand quilting for me - and in return I could hook them a rug. Michelle piped up and said she thought she knew just the person to do exactly that for me! I was excited! She introduced me to Sharon and we made the arrangements - I told her there was absolutely no hurry - it had been waiting for years so what did more time matter in the long run? I received my finished quilt in early December - beautifully quilted! I got the binding on and washed it right up and I love it!

I know it's not the most spectacular quilt that I've ever pieced, but it's a simple graphic design. And scrappy of course - my favorite kind. If I made this quilt today I would have thrown in several more colors to make it more interesting, but all-in-all it's still a nice one. It's a smallish queen sized quilt - I wish now that I'd added borders when I was piecing it.

I made this lighthouse rug in return - a pattern that Sharon found on the cover of an old issue of Create & Decorate. The rug measures about 24" square. I put lots of swirls in the background of this rug to make it more interesting while hooking it, and also more interesting to look at when it was finished. 

I think we're both very pleased with our new projects.