Quilting this one was not a good experience. (I was going to say that it was a huge challenge, or maybe a real hassle, or maybe even a pain in the neck, but I'm trying not to be too negative.) First, I spent an hour trying to get the tension right. I was trying to use a light grey thread on top and black thread on the bottom, but it was not working at all. I knew it would be better to use the same thread on the top and bottom for the tension to work out. My friend Faye at Mimi's Passions told me to think about using chartreuse or orange thread. Now, why didn't I think of that? I'm always suggesting that to other people, but I didn't think of it for myself.
You know what? I really liked the orange!
Then, I had a lot of trouble stitching through all those layers. In some spots with all the slashing apart and sewing back together, there were so many thicknesses it was really difficult to get smooth curves or keep the needle going without it getting hung up. To top it all off, I managed to do this -
Take my advice. Don't do that.
I felt better once I decided on a binding color (with the help of Hubby) and I knew I was almost done.
Hand stitching the binding down is my favorite part of making a quilt!
Now that it's finished I really love this quilt. There are so many fun fabrics in it, from plaids and selvedge edges .....
..... to thirties prints .....
..... to juvenile prints.
Even watermelon!
So, tonight I'm sitting back and enjoying my accomplishments (when I'm not doing a happy dance!)
I haven't kept a quilt for us in a long time, so I'm looking forward to snuggling up in this one, drinking coffee, and reading a book.
I may just do that every morning!
If you want to see how the blocks were made look at this blog entry then read this one.
