Hello Tin Lizzie

I reacquainted myself with my long arm machine last week. It was a comfortable session, too, as I loaded, quilted, bound and labeled the same quilt without a single snafu.

Admitting to myself that I've done so little quilting this year is something of a hard pill to swallow, as I set long-arming lots of quilts as one of my main goals of the year. Hmm..

But here we are nearly at the end of May and I have just 2 quilted quilts to show for myself. I guess I have to look at being a bit more accountable in the next 7 months, right?

The baby quilt I stitched in January/February while we were in Florida finally needed to be finished - that baby is already 5 months old! My hardest decision was which backing to use; I found a neutral solid in my stash that complimented the muted colors in the front, and they work perfectly together.

My meandering design makes me think of the flight pattern of a bumblebee; I just sorta' whip around all over the place and hope I can fill the spaces as evenly across the quilt as possible.

Baby quilts are so satisfying to do because they are small and are so quickly finished. In about an hour, I had this one done and ready to remove from the machine.

After cutting away all the excess batting and backing, I was able to create my binding strips from the backing leftovers. I love that. It helps reduce the leftover scraps. Lord knows I already have enough scraps! 

Done and ready to gift! Hopefully the little guy and his sweet momma will love on this quilt and wear it out as he grows.

Here's both a review of the fabric I used for the quilt as well as the details on making the blocks.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

More Free-Motion Practice

While Claudia and Denise were here on Thursday, I did one little free-motion thing just to get my feet wet, so to speak. It was small and actually turned out quite nicely. Since this photo was taken, I have trimmed it and bound it. The plan is to use it on the screened porch this summer.

Having this little success encouraged me to continue with additional practicing, and before we packed up at the end of the day Thursday, I had sandwiched and pin-basted this fabric.

I love the "pebble" quilting I've seen on some quilts, so I tried doing it. I made myself keep going even when I knew I was creating a crazy mess of the pebbles. Only by practicing does one improve.

I decided not to quilt on the blooms of the flowers, and I do like how these pop from the design.  If you inspect too closely, you will see the thread chaos. I'm ignoring them, myself. Some pebbles look quite all right, though.

I have done about half of the piece of fabric, which is a fat quarter. I plan to finish this quilting, then use the fabric to make a zipper bag. I will certainly be sharing when I get it all done.

Gotta' take off my quilter/blogger hat and put on my teacher hat. Class today, and I must be off! Before you leave here, maybe you'd like to see what others are making on this Monday Making link at Love Laugh Quilt.

Happy Quilting, Friends!