Sunday, September 2, 2012

A Finished Quilt

It seems like it's been ages since I've finished anything, but it's been a crazy summer.  And it's September already!  But I finally spent some time at the sewing machine and finished this quilt.  I've called it "Sweet Dreams".
I'm so pleased with how this quilt turned out.  The soft palette of gray & cream is so soothing and perfect for a gender-neutral baby quilt.
I tried something new in the quilting process this time.  The design is from my new book by Charlotte Warr Andersen, called "One Line at a Time - 24 Geometric Machine-Quilting Designs Made Easy".  As much as I like free-motion quilting, there's just something about precise straight lines that I love.  I guess it's my engineering background, but I like precision.  Her instructions teach you how to mask off the design area with 1" wide painters tape that serves as your guidelines, but the design of my blocks gave me the exact guidelines I needed, only on a 2" scale, instead of 1".  So there was absolutely no marking, no templates - nothing - just stitch and go - so easy!  I have to admit, it took a little concentration to make sure I didn't make any wrong turns, but it wasn't hard.  And it's continuous - edge to edge - so no thread breaks either!  Now I'm ready to try some more of the designs in this book.  

I wanted to get a little more creative with my photos for my Etsy listing, with the hopes that a good photograph might create some more interest.  Being a baby quilt, I thought of skies, clouds, and of course - the new windmills that have been popping up in our area.  So on our Sunday afternoon drive today, I took my quilt and my camera along and stopped along the roadside for a little photo shoot.  Unfortunately, I wasn't happy with the photos of the quilt with the windmills in the background, but with the help of PicMonkey.com, I was able to work with some of the others.  If you'd like to see the five finalists I picked, they're on my Etsy listing here.

4 comments:

  1. Kathy that is a wonderful neutral quilt-you've sparked my interest in the quilting I think I will need to get that book. I too love Free motion quilting but have just started trying straight line quilting and am intrigued-guess it's just the next step-it's the wonderful thing about quilting-always a new thing to learn, even after years at it!
    I don't know what it is but I LOVE seeing those huge windmills, I know some think they're ugly but I think they're beautiful I always get a little thrill when we pass the ones near Somerset on the turnpike-great picture.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a beautiful quilt--love the color combination.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I really like the soft colors. Your pictures are great...it is very hard to photograph quilting and you did a great job!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love that quilt! Sometimes neutrals can be fun to work with. Oh, and those quilted buttons are adorable!

    ReplyDelete

Comments from my readers make me smile!