Woot. I did it.

What was I waiting for? Why was I so afraid of free motion quilting?

I finally took the plunge.


Yes, this is the front. But those of you who preferred the sashing, don't despair....


....maybe *this* is the front! I didn't want to purchase any fabric for this project and I didn't have enough to back two quilts...so now I have a "reversible" quilt.

The FMQ wasn't bad at all *except*:
1. I kept reading how fatiguing it is...but it's hard to believe how tired my shoulders were!
2. Logically I understand why this would take so much thread. But I was still shocked that 8 bobbins weren't enough.

The key to the whole hand speed vs. machine speed ratio for me seems to be music. If I got too focused on quilting I would mess up, but if I was bopping around to upbeat music (put Michael Jackson into Pandora, you won't be sorry. MJ, Stevie, Marvin Gaye, Prince, and even Queen and the Beatles!!) I wouldn't get overly stressed about what I was doing. I think margaritas would have a similar effect. I will test this and let you know.

Speaking of messing up, I had one major faux pas.


HMMMM....Where'd that crease come from? I didn't baste well, most of my safety pins are tied up in half done quilts, and I didn't feel like hand basting. I paid for it (plus I think I should try starting in the middle instead of the edge, but I liked hiding the beginning of my quilting in the binding). I'm not pulling all the quilting out to fix this -- I'm leaving it as a badge of honor on my first FMQ quilt! More pictures coming when I finish the binding.


Also, I tried Angry Chicken's Iced Tea concentrate this week and I am in love. Super fast, super easy, and super good! This is one family bag of decaf black tea and two bags of blueberry tea. Yummy! I do a ratio of one glassful of ice, two thirds full of water and topped off with concentrate.

And lastly, I've been thinking about organizing a Christmas in August swap/modified round robin. I love Christmas fabrics, I love scrappy quilts...what could be better than putting them together?!? I thought each participant could make six (or 12?) scrappy Christmas blocks (maybe based on Oh, Fransson's scrappy starling tutorial) and send a block or two to each participant (more planning inserted here). Then we would each end up with 12 Christmas blocks in a variety of different fabrics without having to buy a ton of fabric. Then we would have plenty of time to assemble, quilt, and bind before the holidays! Would anyone be interested?