tractor

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At Plum Loco Ranch, Door County, WI.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

My quilting journey

WooHoo!  My first finish of 2012!



I really fell in love with this little quilt.  Maybe it's due to all the time we spent together on our journey to the finish.  Maybe all the time spent changing thread colors and fiddling with the tension to get good FMQ stitches.  Maybe it's how the quilting transformed my simple little quilt.  Maybe it's all the firsts that it represents in my little quilting hobby: 


(1) my first hand embroidery project (thanks to Clover & Violet)


(2) first time I used an old full size sheet as a back (a tight weave for FMQ but a real saver of $$ and time)


(3) first time I stitched in the ditch with my darning foot (over by the purple triangle -- another time saver)


(4) first time to turn the backing to the front as binding, just like my grandma always did (the decorative feather stitch seemed appropriate)


And on that last point - I liked it!!!  Followed the directions out of Better Homes & Gardens Complete Guide to Quilting, which is my favorite quilting reference book. 


It was so nice not to mess with those binding strips.  I may have to be more careful of my backing choices in the future so that I can do this more often.


This post is linked to Confessions of a Fabric Addict's Whoop Whoop Friday post.  Click over and check out some more projects!


Namaste.



10 comments:

  1. That's a whole lot of firsts wrapped up in one very pretty quilt!! The quilting looks wonderful

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  2. WhooHoo!! You did so good!! I'm happy for you. I do that with my binding sometimes. It's so fun to use a decorative stitch. I was in the quilt shop years ago, and those "ladies" were shaking their heads, poo-pooing turning the back to the front for binding. What silly geese they are. Quilting is for fun. And your's is beautiful too!!

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  3. Beautiful! No closeups of your embroidery though! Whoop Whoop!

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  4. The Quilt Police tell you absolutely NOT to use sheets but with the price of fabric, why not? It looks like it was made to go with your quilt and I love the feather stitch on the binding. And thanks for dropping by my blog!

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  5. It's darling and I love the colors! Great stitching on the binding.

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  6. I like it too!! I love the way you did the binding!! Great method. Congrats on all the firsts!!

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  7. Such a sweet quilt. I like the back. I have seen lots of re-purposed sheets for backing lately. I love it! Yes, turning the backing to the front was how I learned to bind quilts!

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  8. This was a fun project and I like your lighter color look. Fantastic backing and so many firsts - well done.

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  9. Beautiful quilt, Kris! So many wonderful firsts - and you did a great job with all of it! Whoop whoop!!

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  10. A gorgeous finish and the backing is so pretty and perfect for the 'binding'.

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