Do you remember...

Do you remember the very first quilt that you made? I started quilting about four year ago when my son was nearly one year old. I have no previous sewing or quilting experience and I pretty much learn as I go ever since. My sister did a beginner lesson in quilting and she pass some of her knowledge to me. The first quilt I made somehow I choose to do applique (from this book) and instead of making a baby sized quilt I made a large quilt top. I never finish it until now.

Part of me is really embarrassed to show you this quilt top, as I can pick up so many mistakes in it, but part of me also believe that it is important to look back and see how much we have grown in terms of our quilting skills, color selection, and, perhaps in the process, finding our own design and styles.

Anyway, back to trying to finish this quilt, this is what I have designed to quilt on this quilt top. The sashing around the applique squares I took the design from here and recreated it into a tulip flower cross, with 4 small hearts in the middle.

For the outer border I really want to try free motion quilting some swirls so I purchased Angela Walters' Craftsy Class "Machine Quilting Negative Space" to help me get started. The class was excellent as she takes you through the process step-by-step visually, and I did watch certain parts again as I got stuck around the corners but it didn't take long for me to get it right.

As you can see for the bottom half of the border I use swirls combine with leaf design (from Angela's class) and the top half I quilt straight line with little circle. I think the two designs blend well together and quilting swirls isn't so scary anymore. Thanks to Angela Walters!

Thank you for stopping by!

Cheers, Erica