Revisiting Surrender and Product review: Sew E-Z Board

I started a new project this week or, depending on how you look at it, I’m revisiting an old one. I was recently contacted by a pediatric medical director for a not-for-profit hospice that accepts children. While they have beautiful traditional quilts on their walls to comfort the families, they just opened a new unit and they do not have any pediatric quilts there yet. She saw “Surrender” and wanted to purchase it for the new floor.

Of course, I couldn’t possibly sell that particular quilt. Not only does it have great sentimental value to our family, but it really belongs to DD#2 and her husband. My initial impulse was to write a letter of regret. After talking to DH and DD#2, they both urged me to offer to make a second quilt, so that’s what I did. Much to my delight, the offer was accepted! So, this week, I started to make the new quilt. We’ve decided that this new quilt will be called “Acceptance.”

I’ve never really duplicated a quilt before, so I was a little apprehensive. I am surprised, however, that it’s actually been rather nice revisiting it. (It also gives me the chance to tweak the things that I don’t like about my first version!)

I’ve done a few things different so far. This time I’ve pinned everything to my Sew E-Z Board. I really like this product. It is large — 25-1/2″ by 33″ even when folded in half, yet relatively lightweight. The outside is covered with a black felt-like fabric. I’ve used it as a backdrop when I needed to photograph small quilts. The inside is a medium grey fabric with a 1″ grid. It’s great for blocking smaller projects. It’s also good for pressing yardage since I can spread the full 45″ width across it at one time.

I decided to use my Sew E-Z Board because my entire quilt will fit on one side without having to reposition the pattern and fabric. I can also rest the bottom edge on my legs and prop it up against the table so I can work on a slant surface. This feels more like a drawing board and I can see everything a little better.

This is where I left off last night. As soon as I’m done with this post, I’m planning on spending the majority of today working on it.