Trial and Error

It is quilted.  This quilt, designed and machine pieced by me is now quilted by me.  It has 100%, perhaps more like 110% of my sweat, tears and blood in and on it.  I began this quilting project thinking, "How hard can it be?"  Could I have been more naive.  I designed this quilt with my 10 year old son.  We spent several days adding, subtracting and generally goofing around until we had the pattern the way we wanted.  Then I began cutting and sewing.  Midway through the project I had to take a time out for less than lady-like behavior.

  After several weeks and a pieced back we were ready to go again.  I loaded the quilt on my long-arm machine and there it sat.  I was not concerned.  This happens to me a lot.   I am wait for some sign, idea or image to pop into my head and lead me in a direction.  Once the waiting is over I work like an obsessed woman.  I often feel like if I don't work quickly enough my ideas will disappear.

matrix

pebbling

Three days it took me to quilt this.  I worked about 5 hours a day and then made myself stop.  I knew if I would have kept on I would have hated the final project.  As it is I can still see all of the little imperfections and places that didn't turn out just the way I would have liked them to.

Goldilocks

I went way, way, WAY out of my comfort zone and tried lots of new designs.  Some of them I love and some I will never use again.  But I experimented and I am excited that I did.  Look at the new things I learned about quilting.  I used 6 new designs! Many if not all of the new designs I attempted are from Leah Day's 365 days of filler designs.  If you haven't checked it out yet do it now. All of the new designs I put in the center of the squares and rectangles.  I needed a smaller space to be able to use these designs and it seemed like the perfect application.

amoeba

flame stitch

poinsettia

henna fooffy

 I learned new things about myself, too. Mainly I don't quilt well after 9 pm no matter how much coffee I have ingested. Now on to binding.