Pattern Info
Difficulty:
Category: Quilting
Type of item: Functional
For: Charity
Style: Cute, Casual, Traditional
Materials
3 coordinating 100% cotton fabrics. Warm & Natural cotton batting. Dual-purpose mercerized cotton thread.
What was your inspiration?
The young women at my church wanted to do blankets for Project Linus. They recruited other women in the church to donate money and/or to create blankets. I volunteered to crochet a blanket, and to quilt one. There was a bit of a time crunch, so I selected two projects that I could pretty quickly complete and get a chance to practice some new techniques, as well. In this case, I wanted to practice free-motion quilting. In the past, I've subscribed to the "send-it-out-to-the-longarmer" method of quilting!
What are you most proud of?
I'm proud that I actually DID it (free-motion quilting). There were times that I thought of just doing straight-line quilting. It would be easier, I'd get the project done faster, and it would probably be better-looking. But I thought, if I don't practice on this piece, what would I feel comfortable practicing on. So, I got my machine set up, bought a book on free-motion quilting, and purchased Wendy's Craftsy course. After all the reading and studying, I jumped in!
What advice would you give someone starting this project?
Piecing the project is very simple. This is definitely a beginner's project. What I might suggest is, since the blocks are so simple, and the colors are in large blocks, pay attention to which colors you want to use, and how they coordinate. As I look at this finished piece, I wish I had used a bold green or yellow fabric rather than the polka-dot one that I selected. It does not seem to hold up well against the red and the blue. I would also consider breaking up the color blocks more (by rotating the blocks until I got the look I want) so there were not such long stretches of one color.
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