So you know, I’m still working on the tatted box! It’s complete, I just need to draw out the pattern. I thought I’d show you a couple of my recent projects in the meantime.
I love to give people baby quilts. My acupuncturist and her receptionist were both expecting babies and were due in January and February this year. I’ve tried to have baby quilts done before a baby comes along, but I don’t always manage that. This time I had one done and one that still needed to be quilted.
The receptionist was due first, so I gave her the one I had ready to go. She’s having a girl. I had such fun making this quilt! I just could not resist the flamingo print. The colors in this photograph aren’t quite right…the background on the flamingo print is beige.
I also use baby quilts as quilting practice. They’re quick and hopefully will be used until they fall apart, so it’s not so imperative that they be “perfect”. I’m very much a perfectionist, but I’m trying to overcome that.
I’ve made quilts before that I thought were pretty messy, but when I saw them later I was surprised they were so cute. I think it’s because after some time I see the imperfections as interesting and fun instead of ugly. I rather like the life it brings to the quilt. I need to keep telling myself that.
Here’s a close-up of this quilt, although I’m not sure if you can see the quilting design. I did this one with free motion on my regular machine and not the longarm. Each square of the quilt had a similar motif stitched on it and the sashing had rows of hearts.
And this is the quilt I made for my acupuncturist. The center was an uncolored muslin panel which I colored with crayons and heat set. It was lots of fun to do and I was pleased with the result. My mom gave me the squares years ago because she had no intention of putting them together into a quilt. I think they worked out great here.
I really like the design of the quilt, but I wish I could say the same for the quilting. I learned a lot. I stitched a sunflower over each of the squares using the computer on the longarm. Part of the way through the first design, I realized it was a mistake. You could only see the circle center of the flower and parts of the petals–only what was on the red square. Argh! So I found a pinwheel design to stitch in the middle. Lesson 1: consider the contrast between the fabrics when selecting a quilting design.
I did some freehand stitching in the middle panel, which was a great reminder of why I need to put a practice muslin on the machine before I stitch on a quilt. It’s not my best work, but at least it improved as I went along. Lesson 2: practice first!
Keep stitchin’!
Nancy
