** I am away from my sewing machine right now but will return on August 2 with a new post! **
My entry into quilt making was delayed by several years because I couldn’t get my brain around the actual quilting part of the process. I educated myself, reading many books and blogs about how other quilters tackled this task. (At this point, YouTube wasn’t the phenomenon it is now.) Still, the idea of guiding a big quilt sandwich through the tiny throat of my machine was intimidating, and I settled for dreaming about the day I would make a quilt.
Eventually, I did try my hand at quilting on my domestic and was quickly hooked. Quilting became the focus of my creative energy. And years after that, I discovered the joy of paying a longarmer to quilt projects for me!
I love the look of a panto on my projects. The quilting design is so perfect and precise, and by farming out the quilting, I make more time in my life for designing and sewing—my preferred parts of the quilt-making process.
Lately, however, I’ve been quilting projects myself again. In part, this results from the projects at hand, which have been suited to the quilting designs I can accomplish with a walking foot or with my rudimentary free-motion quilting skills. I also missed quilting. There’s something special about completing every part of making a quilt myself, and although I have plenty of projects slated for my longarmer, I am going to try to do more of the quilting myself, at least in the foreseeable future.
What you see in this post is the soon-to-be released pattern for newsletter subscribers. (It’s fast, easy, and a yardage buster!) As you can see from the pictures above, the project features many prints—so many that you wouldn’t be able to see a pantograph had I had this top longarmed. It was the perfect venue for me to try my hand at free-motion quilting straight(ish) lines and little stars. The picture below shows the quilting on part of the back.
Is my quilting perfect? Not even close! But the handmade look of the quilting adds to the charm of the whimsical fabric I used, and a trip through the washing machine and dryer will crinkle up this beauty, camouflaging many of the imperfections. I like it enough to do this design on another project!
Psst ... I am away next week and will be back with a finish(!) on August 2. : )
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Sweet new design and fabrics, and quilting, too, Michelle!!! Have a relaxing vacay!
ReplyDeleteThat blue unicorn fabric is still one of my favorites : ) Gorgeous work as always and I love that quilting design, totally stealing for my next project!
ReplyDeleteI love your sweet little quilting pattern, and also love that you did it all yourself! Before I became a long-armer, or maybe the reason I became a long-armer, is the desire for my quilts to be 100% "of me." But the daunting hurdle of domestic quilting an actual quilt took me more than 16 years to overcome, and I never ever, after putting my first long-armed quilt on that first longarm frame, wanted to go back to basting a quilt sandwich for domestic quilting again. This quilt came out so sweet and I am looking forward to the pattern, as well as any others that may be coming down the pike!!!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ophelia. I hated basting my quilts and also wanted to have 100% ownership of the work. I didn't use my first longarm for four months because I was scared of it. Once I started, I couldn't quit. Looking forward to seeing the full reveal. Enjoy your vacation.
ReplyDeleteI love an imperfectly free motion quilted quilt. And I love the texture you created with the chain of asterisks!
ReplyDeleteI love these fabrics!! Also love the stars on a chain - I have used the motif myself and think is is so pretty. Well done Michelle. Bernie @needleandfoot
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