happened in about the last six inches. I think the next time I bind a quilt, I'm going to get smart and put a bandaid over that thumb before I even start. I don't think I've ever bound a quilt without jabbing my needle right there at least once. In fact, do I even see scar tissue in this picture?
Anyway, in a very uncharacteristic move, I've completed this quilt a full week before I had to since Tommy won't be here until next weekend. I'm loving this quilt!
I love the design, I love the colors, I love the feel of it. I quilted it in an all over meandering pattern and that gives it such a different feel from my straight line quilted quilts. It feels sturdier, heavier. I love it, and can't stop touching it!
So, did you pick up on anything? Did you notice how very calmly and casually I just mentioned that I have FREE MOTION QUILTED MY VERY FIRST QUILT!!! Yeah, I couldn't remain calm forever. In my last post, Malini from My Quilting Journey suggested I check out Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project. So I did. She gives lots of helpful tips and one of the first things she says is if you want to learn how to stipple, just stipple a large quilt. You'll be good by the end. So my thought process changed from, "I have to find the time to practice & waste a bunch of fabric and batting until I'm good enough to quilt an actual quilt" to "just do it." So I did.
Badly. Huge variation in stitch length, lots of "eyelashes" on the back, lots of jerky movements and times when I cross over previous stitching. But I did it. And I do think I finished better than I started. And, maybe the most important part, I really, really enjoyed it. I'll show you some of it, certainly not the worst of it:
A real quilter would cringe, but I'm very, very proud. The only thing I'm disappointed in is that in my excitement, I failed to start in the center. This caused some minor puckering in the center of the quilt. It hasn't been washed yet, so I'm hoping it will be less noticeable in the final product. Such a basic rule of quilting - I'm upset with myself for failing to remember it.
But, I'm on my way to learning a fun new skill, and I've created my first pattern as well. Overall, a success!
I'm linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts for her Finish it Friday series. It seems she was also doing some late night stitching this week:)
