The last stitches in the Anna quilt and ten thousand page views!

Thanks to everyone who reads my blog! I've reached a milestone - well I think it is a milestone! Ten thousand, that's 10,000 page views! As a beginner blogger I don't know how that ranks but I'm pretty excited about it and I appreciate that you make time during your day to read my blog! And the gang is also happy you follow along!

It's time to quilt the part of the border that goes from the swag to the binding. I decided to go with straight(ish) lines! I was tired of stippling/meander quilting and didn't want to repeat it outside border. But more importantly changing the quilting pattern will create more interest and depth and that is something I did want to incorporate in this quilt. I started by marking lines with my blue fabric marker and they were 1 1/2" apart. I stitched several lines freehand using the blue lines as a rough guide. This is the first part of the quilting.

It looks good from a distance (there's a lesson here) but up close it wasn't very straight. Can I live with what I've done or is some reverse sewing (ripping out) in order. I can live with it but I wanted to make sure that the balance of the border was a little more uniform. So I marked blue lines 3/4" apart. I would quilt on the blue line and eyeball one line between the two. This is the swag border marked with the new markings.

The corners could be quilted in a number of ways. It could be a sunray design like I did with my quilt Orange Crush.

Close-up of sun ray quilting on the back of Orange Crush

In the end I decided to resolve the corner lines by drawing a diagonal line from the outer corner to the inner corner of the panel. This would be the point where the lines intersect. The diagonal line would not be quilted - it would just be used to help me match up the lines coming in from either side of the border.

 
And this is the corner quilted. I'm happy with the effect although I do see one line that I missed. I'll have to go back in and quilt it!

And here is more of the border. I like the effect of the two quilting designs - it almost looks like two different fabrics! I did this all with my free motion foot so it made the quilting of the border fast and easy! And lovely if I do say so myself!

I've been debating quilting the border triangles but I've decided to leave them unquilted. They have a little puff to them which I think frames the quilt very nicely. So I'll baste the edge with a needle and thread about 1/8" away from the outside edge. I do this because I find that the binding goes on much smoother when the layers are basted together. Then the quilt will be trimmed up, bound and photographed for you to see!

Now I want to go back to my comment "there's a lesson here". Quilts are not looked at through a magnifying glass (unless maybe they are going in a juried show). Let me give you a practical example. Take a look at this! I was out in the garden taking pictures of flowers and look what was there! I didn't notice it until I looked at the pictures on the computer.

This is the picture that I took - I didn't even notice the spider!

Just as I didn't notice the spider because I was looking at the flower, I don't see the little wobbles in my quilting because I look at the quilt. We make quilts for the joy of the making and the comfort we get from their use. Like the flower we look at our quilts from a distance. So before you critique the "spiders in your quilt", take five big steps back and look at the flower. I'll bet you won't even notice the spider! Perspective is our friend!

This morning I was roused from a lovely sleep by a commotion in the livingroom. What the heck was all the racket? Oh brother! It's the Turtle Girls at it again!

Apparently they wanted to greet the dawn with some yoga and friends! Right - everybody O-U-T!  After their little buddies left I told Turtle Girls that in future should they wish to "greet the dawn" they should do it where dawn is which is outside! I think they got the message!

After that early rising this morning and lots of quilting I think I'll go have a nap! So until I post again, happy sewing!