Ta Da!!!!!!!!  Here’s the quilt top that I’ve been working on these past seven weeks.  Now all those pinks, greens, yellows and dark blues make sense because you can see them in the border.

Not knowing where to start in picking out fabrics for a quilt, I emailed my teacher for help before class started. She  suggested finding a border fabric I liked and then picking colors out of that to use in the quilt blocks.  All three of the quilts that were finished today in our class (two people were absent) look COMPLETELY different because of the colors and fabric designs used even though the block designs were the same.

The next part of the journey is to pick out a backing fabric and I did try today, but nothing jumped out at me. I think I have to sit with it a bit. Actually, I wouldn’t mind a white with a small navy dot. I would also consider a green, but with a different pattern than the green in the blocks.  Pink and yellow are out of the running.  But green is definitely in.

We did learn how to make the quilt sandwich with backing, batting and quilt top. We also learned how to attach the binding and how to hand sew it around the quilt.  I am also taking a class in a week or so on machine binding.  So, I’ll have a choice.

We also learned how to quilt in the ditch, which side of the ditch to be on, and some variations on machine quilting designs. We practiced on our rail fence samplers.

The colors in this pic are off.  The green border is not this faded looking. Must be the lighting or lack therof.

Anyway, this is what I get to practice on. I have stitched around the nine squares after stitching around the inner (pink) border.  Now I get to practice using various quilting patterns that are mostly geometric lines.

I am going to try to quilt it on my machine.  Wish me luck!

Love,

Janet