the lessons motherload!

OK for quilt #3, I decided to do lots of different things and not to worry if I got them wrong.  This was going to be the "learn those lessons" PDQ quilt.  One of my first fabric purchases was a "happy campers" jelly roll (lots of strips of fabric 2 1/2 inches by 36 inches) and I decided to make a kind of coinstack quilt (cos it was an easy option!).  So I cut the strips into 8 inch blocks and sewed then together in strips, then used Kona Essex linen to sash them. 

I really enjoyed making the binding out of the cut blocks- it was my first time : P.  I ended up being one block short - d'oh! I quilted in straight lines because, seriously free motion quilting scares the bejesus out of me.  I mean I've tried it but I guess practice makes perfect and I definitely need more practice.  The guidelines for the quilting were initially made using some cute masking tape I found on esty but then I realised that I could mark the rest of the lines using my ruler (the tape didn't seem to like getting mucked around). 

I backed it with a funky orange check:

which you can see wasn't exactly ironed before it was used - there's a lesson right there!  And so I finally finished it and Laughing Boy reluctantly agreed to help me photo it:

It was windy that day!

The fabric on the front and the back reminded me of picnics so a picnic blanket it became and it is now in the possession of the fragrant Mrs Russell and her gorgeous family. 

So lessons included:

• ironing is really a must when it comes to quilting.  This is a particularly hard lesson for me because I. Don't. Iron. Fullstop.  It's Laughing Boy's job but I haven't quite managed to convince him to help me out on this one!
• it's not just ironing but it's ironing properly - setting the seams, making sure that no fabric is "lost", ironing! pah I hate it - if I'd known about this before I started......  now it's too late!
• the quilt sandwich is a tricky beast - use more quilting pins!
• it's a b****r getting a big quilt through the small neck of a sewing machine
• it's ok to make mistakes - esepcially while you're learning
• I didn't realise how much joy I would get from cutting the quilt to shape in order to add the binding -  maybe I should get out more?
• handsewing on binding is real fun (see last bullet!)

Note to self: get out more (maybe to the Festival of Quilts in August!)