Changed Plans

I've been working on a tree skirt for the past few weeks, and got partway through it when I realized that the skirt was too small (45" in diameter). What to do? I had already cut the fabric, so enlarging the pattern was not going to work. So I decided to add to the tree skirt to make it bigger in diameter.

Probably not the smartest thing to do, as making a pattern that is repeatable on an arc is really hard. My husband and I spent several hours trying to do geometry and make something that looked nice, and got nowhere. I thought of a new, simpler pattern last night, though, and I'm gonna give that a try this weekend.

My newest obsession

So for years, I've wanted to make quilts. My grandmother was a quilter, and I remember the lovely quilts that she made over the years. But I unfortunately never got the chance to learn from her, and I never had the courage to try it on my own...until earlier this year.

My friend Nikki, who has made a few quilts in the past, agreed to teach me what she knew. I chose to do a double Irish chain, as it seemed fairly simple, and with some trepidation, sat down to be taught how to make blocks. To my surprise, it was actually fairly simple (and fun!) to do. I finished my quilt top in a matter of weeks.

And then came the hard part -- the actual quilting. This to me is the most intimidating part of quilting. I tossed out the idea of handquilting as Nikki does, as I do not have the patience to work on a single project for months on end. That leaves tying (ugly, IMO), and machine quilting. So machine quilting it is.

I did a lot of research into how to do machine quilting, and quickly decided that trying to force a large quilt through the throat of a small machine would be an exercise in frustration. Once I learned about machine frame quilting, I knew that was what I wanted to do. My first purchase was a Little Gracie II frame, with a Juki TL98QE. Big mistake on the latter choice -- it has only a 9" throat, which is still too small to do much with.

So then I purchased a 15" Bailey Homequilter a few weeks ago. Despite some early frustrations in getting it working properly, everything is hunky-dory now, and I love working with it. I am sticking to practicing at this point, with the goal of finishing the quilt in time for Christmas as a gift for my mother-in-law. Stay tuned to find out if that actually happens ;)