The finished big brother quilt

It's finally done.

I think it took so long because I wanted to do the quilting myself. Not on my home machine, or by hand but using a long arm. In february I took a class at the Quilt Haus and it was great. So then I rented some time to practice and it was an unmitigated disaster.

It took awhile to get up the courage to try another class. The sweet 16 handi quilter. It's a long arm but not on rails, you move the quilt versus moving the machine. I loved it. So I rented some time and did the Wonky Heart Quilt, and once could manage, I rented some more time to finished the Big Brother Quilt.

Here's the finished piece.

While quilting

the quilt pattern

My Signature

The big brother with his big brother quilt

It's not even a twin size quilt, it misses the mark by a foot, but still it was too large for the handi-quilter. Just too much quilt mass to move around. But as I had already basted it, and was wary of the 24' machine, I went with it. I made up my own pattern, I like it. I was bored with the idea of a basic wandering path.

Still, I like it, and I like quilting. We'll see if I'll try it again.

The Wonky Heart Quilt

I recently finished a baby quilt for my new niece Nora. I had found some large gingham check fabric at a Walmart that still sold fabric one day. I had thought I would make Lucy a dress in it but never got around to it. I decided to instead, do another quilt.

My attempt was to piece a large heart, and then long arm quilt it with a wandering heart pattern. It didn't quite work out as well as I wanted, I had to improvise a lot more than I was expecting, and the heart got mishapen and the edges never matched up.

There fore it became the "Wonky Heart".

Wonky Heart Quilt

Here's how I started.

Ugh, curves. Why did I cut them in curves!?

Re-working the set up

None of the slices matched up because C*RVES, are always a bad idea when you are pressed for time and sloppy. So to disguise the lack of matching (see left side) I reworked some slices to fit and then added sashing between all the slices.

The Greek Flag re-imagined by Strawberry Shortcake.

I then spray basted the layers together (huge sticky mess on my nasty vinyl floors) and rented some time on the Sweet 16 long arm quilter at The Quilt Haus in New Braunfels. I wasn't terribly satisfied with the final quilt top, but I had come up with a neat wandering heart stitch I wanted to try out. I'm in a heart phase I think.

I like the pattern!!!!!

Gee, I love large scale gingham.

Finished with my sweetheart trying it out.

 

 

My son using it as a cape

I even tried mitred corners on the binding, which went horribly awry.

Now, onto  finally quilting the big brother quilt which is way overdue. (I finished the quilt top in October of last year)

Until then....Ruth