My Quest for Self Improvement

Never too old to learn, is a good motto for life I think. And so my journey of self education into the world of fmq, free machine quilting, continues. I was so pleased with the loopy loops I fmq on the Sandra's Scraps, or Plus Playtime quilt, I finished the loops on the blue background cross.

 

 A day or two ago, I headed back into my lair to loop the loop in the cream background.

 



 

As I headed across the room, I made the mistake of turning my head. My eyes settled on the Quatrefoil quilt, and the guilt kicked in.

 

 

 Started before my grandson was born, this kind of needs to be gotten on with. He has a cot quilt,

 

 

 and a visiting granny quilt in Liberty, pattern from Purl Soho. 

 

 

 You know, every baby needs lots of quilts. He has a lovely quilt his mum made, plus some gorgeous knit and crochet blankets. But wahey, everybody needs quilty cuddles. We went to visit him last week, no finished quilt. We are having a family celebration soon, I predict no finished quilt. It will be Baby C's 1st birthday soon. I wouldn't place money on this being finished then either. And so, I sighed, shuffled the pluses to the back of the chair and picked up the What's Out The Window quilt. (just named that this second, not bad?)

 

I had been unsure what to do in the white backgrounds. I obviously didn't want to use a dark thread in the white, but I didn't want a light thread making a mess of the lovely space backing fabric. My words, not those of an independent member of the quilt police. Anyhow, I had to bite the bullet, so I started doing tiny loops in sort of rows, backwards and forwards across the white areas.

 

I kept going, not stopping to look until I had completed two full blocks.

 

 

Then I tenuously allowed myself to flip over to the dark side.

 

 

 

 

 

I love it! It looks like other people's quilting! It looks the way quilting should. Hard to explain, but it just looks right. I am singing from the rooftops. Life long learning is wonderful. Never too late to teach an old dog new tricks. You can teach your granny to suck eggs. All those old trite sayings and plenty more.

 

The irony is, I now am even further away from a finish than I ever was. The original quilting done two weeks ago in my first effort of fmq? It is all coming out. Every single stitch. Or most of it. My grandson deserves better than this. I need more quilting threads. I need more time.

 

This coming week is, hopefully, the week of our family celebration and a party to celebrate my son and daughter in law's recent wedding. There will be a frenzy of cleaning and baking towards the start of the week, then a frenzy of flower arranging towards the end. If the Queen wants to come to visit, my garden will never look so nice, my house will never be so tidy, and my cake tin is full. I put the marzipan on my Delia Smith celebration cake today. The smell of Drambuie would knock you out. If it doesn't taste great, everybody will be too knocked out to notice!  Tomorrow is icing day. I will have to clean the kitchen after!

 

By deciding to up my fmq game, not only is this quilt running behind schedule, but Sandra's Scraps will not be draping the garden furniture this coming week. The one thing about my previous quilting style was, it was less labour intensive. I am sure I will find a few other quilts to put out in the garden in the meantime.

 

Helen x

linking up with Tish's Adventures in Wonderland and her UFOs

lining up with Myra and Busy Hands Quilts and her Finish or not Friday