OMG November Finish

It's quilted!  Admittedly, this photo was taken before it was finished (the top border wasn't quilted yet) - but I wanted good sunlight to show off the quilting.  Today it will rain.  To top it off, I had run out of thread at this point and had to buy more.  I sat down last night with a new spool of thread and finished the border.

This was more of a challenge than I had anticipated because I started a new job halfway through the month.  I set out having a ton of time to quilt this, then it all disappeared.  I was also amazed at how much time I spent staring at this quilt.  I'd get a patch done, then have to sit and look at the next section before I figured out what to quilt on it.  Improv quilting looks so cool how it flows together, but for me, the actual sewing of it was far less than flowing!  My wall was plastered with doodled examples of what I wanted to sew and I still found myself stuck more often than not.

I had intended to quilt it with a mixture of freemotion and ruler, but once I got it underway I stuck with the freemotion.  I was keeping the border simple since the rest of it was so complex:  wavy chevrons, using a ruler.  Should be easy.  Ha.  I think I ripped out every third chevron.  I'm still learning the ruler work and I'm still having a lot of trouble getting it to do what I want.  Obviously I need more practice with it (and maybe watch some videos).

See?  It really is done.  That last chevron is stitched (a little closer and a little narrower compared to the first ones).  So many wrong things with those chevrons (stitch length, waviness, position, consistency), but once I stand back, I love the pattern it creates.  At one point I had debated ripping it all out and trying another design, but I really liked what I was trying to accomplish, so I stuck with it.

Yay!  Whew.  It will be good to have it bound and get more photos of the quilting (on a not-so-windy day).

 

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Elm Street Quilts - November OMG Finishes

Love Laugh Quilt - Monday Making