I Feel Accompished! April 2017

(Today is January 7, 2018.  This is a blog I never got into Quilting Loft, but want to keep.  I was feeling so accomplished last April after working so hard to learn FMQ.)


I just finished a baby quilt to give to a young family at church.  Quinn is their first child and she is the first baby that has been born into the church for a while.  I wasn't sure where I was going with this quilt.  Today's young people think differently about quilt styles.  It was a challenge as I don't know this young mother really well yet, but I wanted to share her joy over this treasured addition to her family.  I remember my first baby, too!

So, I opened my fabric stash drawers and started searching.  I opened my dies stash to see what I could find.  I looked through my threads stash and decided the color and style of the quilting.  But I still had doubts.

I've changed my quilting dramatically over the past two years.  I still like the same traditional quilt patterns and styles that I began learning in 1968 when I made my first quilt top.  Traditional quilts are what has drawn me into quilting in the first place.  I suppose I will always love them,  I started out hand piecing and hand quilting; I still do some of that.  My problem has always been that I don't have the freedom of endless hours to sit and work so that a quilt is finished in less than 10 years!  When machine piecing became the new technique on the block (hmmm...is that a pun?), I thought, "This is what I need to do if ever I'm going to begin to make all the quilts I have in my head.  So, I learned to machine piece, but I was still hand quilting.  That means I have a number of quilt tops that need quilting.

About for years ago, I decided I need to learn machine quilting.  I bought my Husvarna Viking 140C Anniversay Edition sewing machine with an 11" throat and I determined I was going to learn how to machine quilt on that baby.  It has been a journey as I tried to retrained all my drawing skills into a new mind set.  Now instead of moving the pencil across the paper, the pencil (my machine) is stationary and I move the paper (my quilt sandwich) under the pencil.  My brain did not change quickly and I have some work to prove it.

My first attempt at machine quilting 2003
my first Leah Day project 365 lesson 2012
my feathers in training 2014
   (I don't have pictures to enter in here today.  I think the practice pieces are in my studio on the other side of Lowell.)

But I didn't give up.  I was given a quilt top that needed quilting and I was told I could practice on it.  That was one of the most valuable gifts I could have been given and it became a valuable gift to give back to its owner.  It opened doors of creativity that I'm not sure I've even had the opportunity to explore.  And that quilt certainly boosted my confidence.

This is where I was in April 2017.

This is Quinn's quilt.  I've come such a long way.  For whatever reason, I didn't post this post back in April last year, but I certainly want to make a record of my accomplishments.  I'm so proud of this quilt!!  Its colors made it hard to photograph well with my iPhone, but I still love looking at the pictures!!  My description of the quilting is "doodling".  I was just playing.  I'm glad I've finally gotten this into Quilting Loft.