Finally, Quilting

Quilting is an integral part of my heritage. My grandmother was a quilter, and it is something I have always wanted to pursue. My mom once commented that I had great hand stitching skills like my grandmother, and I was wasting my talent. I can acknowledge that I can make some fairly tiny, accurate stitches by hand when I want to do so. The one thing I could not do was use a sewing machine, and the thought of stitching an entire quilt by hand was daunting. But finally, I decided to tackle the sewing machine and go for it. 

I have embraced the sewing machine, and I finally decided I am invested enough in quilting that I could buy a sewing machine instead of borrowing my mom's machine. To be honest, I cannot believe I waited this long. I have not finished an entire quilt, but I have two tops almost done. 

This is my first quilt top. It isn't perfect, but I learned a great deal from the experience. 

I ended up taking out a few blocks and rearranging at my mom's suggestion. She was right, it looked much better after I changed them out. Putting them back in, now that was the challenge. Don't look too closely at the back! To be honest, I initially refused to move them, but given that I planned to give my mom this quilt (which she did not know at the time) I felt obligated. 

This quilt top was actually complete, but it ended up being much larger than expected. I initially thought it would be more of a throw. After taking it to mom's house and placing it on her guest bed, it was almost large enough to cover it. So I will be adding to the borders to make it a little larger. Of course, then I have to quilt it. 

So many have encouraged me just to pay a long-arm quilter to do that part, but I really want to tackle it myself. I haven't had a class on that part, so that may wait until after a class I am taking in June at a local quilt shop. Have to admit that is the most intimidating part to come. I am up to the challenge, and I cannot wait until I have a completed project!