First Quilt Progress

First Quilt

I had put this quilt aside for a bit while I worked on the Magnolia Quilt, but have now been inspired to get back at it. I had been struggling with the quilting on it anyway, and needed a break. I put in some very large circles, and they had begun to get tedious. So now that hard part is finished.  I did like the way the straight line quilting in the border of the Magnolia Quilt looked, so I decided to carry that idea over into this one. And I like it here, too. I`ve been wondering what to put in between the circles, and I`m thinking I might try some cross-hatching.

This, by the way, is the first quilt I ever pieced together. I saw a tiny photo in a quilt magazine, of what I now know to be a pineapple quilt. I think it was 2000 or 2001. I did some drawing and math, and made it without a pattern. If I remember right, I started the block at the corner, instead of the centre like everybody else! In any case, I had a pieced top, but no idea how to quilt it. So it got put away until recently, when I made up my mind to master both the quilt sandwich and free motion quilting. This seemed like a good practice quilt. And now that I can see the end in sight, I`d like to have it finished, of course.

I`m linking up to Leah Days Free Motion Quilting Project, here.  I first heard about Leah Day when I was in Houston for the International Quilt Festival in 2011.  I wasn`t doing much FMQ at the time, but I was sure intrigued, and I think it was then that I committed myself to becoming better / good at the quilting part of making a quilt.  Leah Day has a great site, showing with videos how to do all kinds of fmq designs. Have a look at what she and others are doing with their quilting.

I'm also linking up with Stitch by Stitch: Anything Goes, here, and the Needle and Thread network, here.  That Needle and  Thread Network is a Canadian blog, with link-ups every week for Work In Progress Wednesday, and this is the 100th posting. There are a lot of really great Canadian Quilters out there, and that blog is a great place to see their work.

Thread-Painting a Finish

I've been working on a piece I started a while ago, printed onto cotton from my own photograph, 11x17". There was quite a bit of thread painting in it, on the butterfly and flowers.  Then I didn't know what to do with the background. With some new practice in FMQ, I decided to just jump in and get it done! Nothing fancy, just some long leaf-shaped filler moves. I'm just now finishing the hand stitching on the skinny 1/8" binding.

I had originally thought to add some beads to the flower centres, but now I think I like them in the thread painting the way they are, so I might just leave it the way it is. Any ideas?

I'm linking this up to Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project, one of my favourite blogs. See the link here, and read about what other quilters are up to.

Free-Motion Quilting

I borrowed these two books from the Library at my quilt guild, the Waterloo County Quilters Guild, last month.  I quite often  choose books that are about art quilts or landscape quilts, but I was in the midst of quilting my Christmas quilt, and needed more inspiration!  Imagine that.

The one book,  Colouring with Thread, by  Ann Fahl, has been very interesting and informative about things like thread draw-up, free-motion embroidery and blocking. Ann has given me much to work on in my own quilts.

And the other  book, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting, by Natalia Bonner, is also an excellent resource.  With good info on the basics, Natalia also covers some easy-to-master quilting stitches such as feathers, flames, and swirls. I've already applied some of these designs in my Christmas quilt, and was glad for the guidance.

And now, I've gone back to another resource I've known about for some time. This resource is Leah Day's Free-Motion Quilting Project. Check out her website here. When I first heard about her, I went to the website, and wasn't ready to take any of it in.  And now, just recently, I am gobbling it up. Now that I've made a few messes with my own quilting, I'm ready to do better!  Leah does any size quilt on her domestic machine, and will convince you that you can do that, too.

I've been determined to master this skill myself, and have previously been afraid to try quilting my own quilts, for fear of doing it badly. This Christmas quilt has been a good practice ground, and I've been concerned less about it being judged, and more about actually doing it. And you know what?  In actually doing it, I've gained some confidence.  I think with a little more practice, I could get good enough at it.

If there is one thing everyone seems to agree on, it is this:  The quilting makes the quilt. I think I've finally grown beyond the straight-line quilting and stippling that I've been doing.  Who knows where this will go?  Time will tell.