Friday, May 31, 2013

Children's Garden - Hooray for a Finish!


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
Lessons
  • 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.
After Thoughts
  • 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.
Blocks and Back

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.

The leaves are weird in this block.  I like the
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.
.

10 comments:

  1. Hi, I'm visiting from Sew Many Ways. Thanks for the inspiration, I am now following you!
    Ally
    http://allysattic1.blogspot.co.uk/

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  2. You did it! Good for you. It looks wonderful.

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  3. Your quilt looks great! I've been struggling with machine quilting an appliqued quilt for the past month! I decided not to quilt over the applique because I thought it would make them stand out but I'm not so sure that was the right move. Hopefully I'll have it done in June! Congrats on a great finish.

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  4. I completely share your perspective on quilts and quilting - they truly are snapshots of our abilities and taste at the moment. Lovely quilting by the way!

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  5. Wow Nancy it looks fantastic! I love your lessons, I have never appliqued a quilt before and will have to remember your tips! Your Churn dash blocks are beautiful too. Thanks for linking up to TGIFF!

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  6. That is a gorgeous quilt! I agree with imposing time frame - it sucks the fun out of the process but sometimes it is necessary so that projects get done. I tend to set short goals when I am quilting.

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  7. I think that's a very pretty quilt. Thanks for the list of suggestions. I like the one about masking tape. I'm going to try that.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Deborah. You'll have to take the list of suggestions as just from my own limited experience of hand quilting. "Real" quilters may have other thoughts. Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment.

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  8. This is a beautiful quilt, with such lovely hand quilting.

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I appreciate your comments and look forward to reading what you have to say. Thanks for stopping by.

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