Free Motion Quilting

I have been very excited about quilting lately. I’ve been working quite a bit on it and really enjoying it. As my post last week showed, I have several things in the works. My mom and I are working on a couple of quilts together. I have gotten excited about the idea of free motion quilting them after watching the Old Red Barn Quilt Along. There's one major problem with free motion quilting - I'm a perfectionist and the thought of it terrified me. But, I decided that I really wanted to try it out and see if I could do it. I also decided that I didn't want my first attempt to be on one of these 2 quilts my mom and I working on - there has been quite a bit of time and money put into these quilt tops and I wanted to practice on something first. But, I also didn't want to just practice on a scrap. It's very hard for me to practice on something that isn't going to be used. With two little ones running around, I don't have much time to sew, but when I do, I want it to count. I went to my favorite fabric store and looked at their sale section. I wasn't really sure what I was looking for, just something that I could use that would be simple, but still useful. I found some blue fabric with cats and dogs on it and realized that it would be PERFECT for Elizabeth. So, I bought a yard of it and another fabric and decided to make her just a little blanket. Well, I free motion quilted it. I read and watched the tutorials several times at Old Red Barn and Oh Fransson and then I just did it. And I loved it. I loved doing it and I LOVE the way it turned out. It isn't perfect, for sure, but I'm ok with that (a huge step for me). I finally realized that this is handmade and nothing handmade is ever going to be perfect. So, now I'm really excited about getting the other quilt tops done so I can quilt them. I'm definitely a convert to free motion quilting. Now, I have to bind this blanket for Elizabeth and I'm thinking she'll use it for rest time at Mother's Day Out this year.

I have been working on this and Elizabeth has seen it. She asked me who I was making it for and I said it was a secret. She thought on that for a day or two and then said, "Mommy, I think I know who the secret is for. I think it's for me because it's blue and has dogs and cats on it." Bingo - I knew it was perfect for her as soon as I saw it.