I'm caught up on Pat Sloan's Children's Library BOM. I love these blocks and I love this fabric!
I am mad at this quilt because I had grand visions for the quilting. To make a long story short, I believe there is something wrong with the bobbin case on my quilting machine. It WILL NOT sew with proper tension when I use thicker threads (50 wt. cotton). It swings wildly between too tight and too lose completely at random. I've had this problem since I've had the machine and always assumed it was something I'm doing. Over time I've come to the conclusion its something w/ the spring mechanism in the bobbin case because I can get the machine to sew beautifully with thinner thread in the bobbin. After messing with this for a while I finished quilting the top part of the sky using my regular sewing machine. I was unhappy with how the quilting came out, so I put it aside for a couple weeks. When the shop sample was needed I erased the marking lines I put on it and just slapped the binding on. I didn't even take a picture of the finished product. I can always go back and finish quilting the flower pot and border later, but for now this quilt and I need a break. I'm counting this as a finish and leaving it at that! I'll report on my new bobbin case when I have a chance to try it with a few different threads.
This next pile of scraps is what is leftover from my most recent finish. I always have so many scraps!!!! Why!!! I've been working really hard to use fabric I have, but alas, borders and bindings cause so many scraps!
I made this quilt at the request of a co-worker for his family member's baby. He asked for appliqué letters, which Shadowfax just had to help me put on. This quilt came from a magazine and finishes at 59" x 59". It called for a different amount of fabric, but I was able to make it perfectly with 13 fat quarters from my stash! I bought the fat quarters at the same time and loved how they all worked together even though they were from two different fabric lines. Mixing fabric lines takes me way outside my comfort zone, but I'm really happy how this turned out. I love the pop of green too!
I quilted the quilt with simple horizontal wavy lines. I got a little frustrated at the small bobbles in the quilting due to maneuvering the full quilt side to side and having to re-position my hands so many times, but overall the quilt came out really cute and the amount of time I spent on it was reasonable.
This quilt is ready to be basted. It was really fun making these blocks and I can see myself using some of these in other quilts in the future. I'd like to quilt this myself, but since its almost a queen size, that is going to take me a while....stay tuned. I might end up sending this to my mom if time doesn't work on my side.
