Ready, Set, Snow - the FMQ wars

Ready Set Snow is on to binding! It's a big quilt, so it will take a while, but I am glad to finally have it quilted. This was an interesting quilt to quilt, because I definitely had to learn a lesson about making my pattern too big. I decided to do a curvy zig zag on the major squares, and at 9+ inches wide, I couldn't always fit an entire line through the throat of the machine, which led to some interesting bumps and redirects in my basic quilting.

For the featured tree blocks, I made a stencil from the clear plastic, and then used an air-erase marker to draw the trees on my quilt. Here it is being practiced:

And then here it is in the quilt:

It was a bit of an adventure to do in the actual quilting because I'd forgotten that not all quilting can be accomplished right-side-up. After I practiced until I had my trees the way I wanted them (more or less) right side up, I had to go back and practice doing them upside-down, and to the side. But, I think they turned out all right, to the point where I'm a little bummed they're so hard to see on the real thing.

Around the outside I finally, finally managed to get some loop-de-loops that worked. Loop-de-loops had been the bane of my existance for a while, and I can't tell you how I did it, only that I drew it miserably a number of times on a number of occasions, and then one day it clicked and I could spiral in and spiral out without it looking like a natural disaster. I'm still not perfect, but given how it HAD been looking, I will totally take it.

Finally, in the corners, I used a snowflake element from the collection itself. Mine turned out a little less wonky in practice, but that's OK. We'll just say I'm developing my own style.

actual

inspiration

And now it is bind, bind like the wind! I am trying a new technique I learned from my mom over Christmas, and so far I think it is working pretty well.