I don't have a walking foot for my machine, so I am learning to quilt by hand. Who knew a simple running stitch could be so difficult?! I am telling the voice in my head that says "give up, get a walking foot, you'll never get this " to shut up for now. No one I know in person quilts so I am relying on pictures, helpful suggestions, and dogged determination to do it. I know deep down that the only way I'll get better at quilting is to just do it.
I made a table runner out of some 2 1/2 inch strips to practice on. I was meaning to make another small quilt but ran out of the fabric I wanted. Of course, there isn't any more at the store, but I am also trying to use what I have instead of buying new fabric all the time. I think it's good, it's forcing me to be creative.
The top picture is of the back. I made pioneer braids of 2 1/2 inch by 6 inch strips following the directions at http://www.quiltville.com/pioneerbraidborder.shtml . It was lots fun, I'm definitely going to use braids on future quilts.
The bottom picture is of the front. I wondered how to do the tapered ends since I wanted to continue with the patchy pattern but didn't have any of the gold print left. So, I strip pieced two 9 patch squares of the red and blue. Then I started to wonder what would happen if I cut the squares across the diagonal. I did, rotated them so the short sides were touching an voila! I had tapered ends the perfect size for the main body.
I'm not near finished quilting it. I figured after struggling with some designs I'd doodled on I just needed to do long, straight (well, almost straight) lines. No pictures yet, but so far it's going well and I'm finding my hand quilting rhythm. It's nice to do something by hand rather than be tethered to the machine. If I can push aside my impatient side I'll do some hand piecing.
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