The Quilt story

This is the finished quilt, folded up ready to ship to my darling first born.

I said that I knew I would need a lot of those 9" squares, and I made a lot of them, but I was very surprised when it took them all and in the end I had to scrounge to make a half dozen more squares to finish the quilt and the shams. You have to have shams. I made about 144 9" squares of random scrap fabrics. I guess it's true, I don't throw anything away.
I also found a lot of yardage which I decided right away would be used for the backing. In the photo above you can see it between the blocks as sashing.

As I worked on the quilt I received a lot of advice and ideas. One great idea was to use a technique called quilt as you go. I thought this would work well for me since I didn't want to spend $150- 200. to have it professionally quilted. So I did a simple stitch in the ditch and then double stitched across the block from corner to corner. It looked nice, but not spectacular. Then I found 'stippling paper'. You place this paper, which has adhesive on the edges, on your quilt block. It's sort of like tracing paper, but you sew on the lines and then rip it off when you're done. So I ripped out all of the quilting I had started and then did this. I liked it right away.

Getting close to finishing I saw the *Scallop Ruler*. I loved it right away and knew it had to be the finishing touch for this amazing quilt. It took some extra time, but I love how it turned out.

I learned so much from making this quilt, every step was a new lesson and I think I am ready to move on to new quilts. I like quilting very much. You should know that it isn't without consequences however. There are hazards along the way. Being stuck repeatedly by hidden pins, and the needle pokes are so unpleasant. I have even shed blood. My wrists and fingers ached from the twisting and pulling and just manipulating the huge thing toward the end stretched my shoulders and neck. But I think it was all worth it. I love it, I think it looks great, my friends say it looks great, and even though I know where all the ugly oops are, I still think it's a great first effort. Who knew I could quilt?