Taking the Plunge

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

My latest project is the most time-consuming: Avonlea's quilt. It's about 47" x 60". I didn't intend for it to be that big, it just kind of happened, but I'm glad now because it should be big enough to use on her toddler bed.

It took me a day to cut and piece everything, then another day of basting and beginning the quilting. This is 2 days of work so far and I'm about 25% done with the quilting. I'm doing free-motion quilting, which is where you lower the feed dogs and use your hands to guide the speed and stitch direction. The pattern I'm doing is called stippling, which is basically just a continuous squiggly line over the whole quilt. I've never done this on a scale this large before (in fact, this is only the second time I've done it in general), so it's a little intimidating, but I'm really happy with it so far.

I wish now that I had made the blocks a little more detailed and the sashing a little thinner, but I still love it. The back is really cool too, I can't wait to take a picture of it.

I have to say that this is really exciting for me. I have always been an avid reader of several quilting blogs, my favorites being a quilt is nice, Crazy Mom Quilts and Handmade by Alissa. I love to marvel at the intricate quilts they make. I could also spend hours browsing quilts on Flickr. Until now, I've been too intimidated to try anything like this myself, figuring I would just be an in-the-ditch quilter for life. I'm so glad I took the plunge though and can't wait to make more.

Okay, on to the pictures.

Laid out over the table:
56:365

Close-up of the quilting:
DSC04342

Here you can see the difference between a quilted section and unquilted section:
DSC04343

Blogged by Making A Modern Family at 9:51 AM  

1 comments:

JoDee Phillips said...

OMGOSH Alicia, that is beautiful! I want to come live in your DD's room!!!! It's coming together soo nice!!!!! You are REALLY making me itch for another girl!! LOL! I think I've decided to hold off on the Dr. Suess theme. Since we will co-sleep, baby won't need bedding or a room for about a year; i'll have plenty of time to figure out a "theme" for baby then--and if it's a girl, you've totally inspired me!!!! I'm so glad you did mendocino!!!

Wed Feb 25, 12:55:00 PM EST

 

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