Noelle's Quilt

I decided to go off on my own and away from the Quilter's Academy book. I'm convinced Harriet Hargrave is a perfectionist and, truthfully, I have enough of that struggle in my life already. I don't need encouragement in that area. So, I'm going to finish those quilts I started from the instructions in the book but I'm not sure if I will return to the book itself. The thought of ripping out a seam because it is a 1/16th of an inch off is a bit repulsive and I would never be able to finish a quilt - since I'm not perfect.

A friend at the local quilt shop told me that she always makes "Amish Quilts". Apparently the Amish purposefully work a mistake into every quilt they make, since there was only one Perfect Person on this earth - Jesus Christ. I'm not sure if I can honestly say that I'm working mistakes into the quilt on purpose, but they are there!

Here's my first completed-beginning-to-end-by-me quilt:



Most of the quilt is done in a grid pattern based on a great tutorial I found. Then I really wanted to try my hand at free motion quilting for the snowball blocks. I did purchase Patsy Thompson's DVD while it was on sale because I don't want to have to hire out a long armer for everything I quilt. My first attempt at free motion quilting was making a stencil and trying to follow the chalk lines. Not good. Ugly. Hideous actually. So, I tore out what I had done on that block and I just kind of went off on my own.


I washed it and it puckered up nice and beautiful because I had not prewashed my fabrics. I just love the puckered look of a quilt - and the feel! So, no prewashing for me, except I did prewash the fabrics for the quilt I'm working on now. After spending an hour ironing the fabric back out I decided that wasn't for me!