I'm so pleased to have finished this quilt in time to send it home with my son-in-law after Memorial Day weekend. Hooray for a finish! I practically quilted my fingers to the bone to get it done in time. (Not really, but I did have to work longer and faster.) No more stressful deadlines for me. It takes some of the joy out of quilting.
I've decided no quilt will be perfect until I perfect my quilting skills -- which means I may never make a perfect quilt. That's okay. I think of each quilt as a snapshot of my ability at the time I made it. I can only be as good as I am and improve as I work on each successive quilt.
Details, etc.
- 47" x 59" after quilting
- 45 1/2" x 56 3/8" after washing and machine drying
- Warm and Natural batting
- Binding was cut at 2", folded in half, stitched to the front, hand stitched to the back
- Always remember to cut out the back of the applique pieces before layering and quilting. Too many layers are too hard to quilt through.
- When appliqueing, stitch the top-most layer on first, then cut out the fabric behind the applique. Do each successive layer the same way. (To avoid the problem of too many layers.)
- Warm and Natural Batting is hard to hand quilt.
- Using masking tape to quilt straight lines is pretty easy.
- Imposing a too early deadline on myself (i.e., not giving myself enough time) makes the quilting less fun.
- A vertical design board and a camera might help the planning process.
- Hand quilting on the diagonal is not as easy as hand quilting with the grain.
- Maybe there is something I could have done to integrate the flower blocks more. Vines or ...?
- The fabric I used for the inner border may have been a better choice for the outer border and binding, too.
- I love Churn Dash blocks. It's a simple pattern that looks different depending on the placement of colors and light/dark fabrics.
Simple block, maybe a little Mary Engelbriet-ish.
I used masking tape for the lines on this block. Maybe I should
have gone all the way to the edges with the quilting lines.
That blot (above) is water. It was rainy when I photographed.
An easy way to make a star is to make five
curves around the inside of a circle.
curves around the inside of a circle.
The leaves are weird in this block. I like the
quilting lines, though. Again, I used masking tape as a guide.
quilting lines, though. Again, I used masking tape as a guide.
Another leaf might have improved this block.
I am linking this post to
A Lovely Year of Finishes at Fiber of All Sorts
Thank Goodness It's Finished (TGIF) Friday at Charm About You
Find a Friend Friday at Sew Many Ways
Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts
Second Quarter Finish-A-Long at She Can Quilt. My original post declaring my intention to finish this quilt this quarter can be found here.
--Nancy.
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