Another WIP Finished!

As I get more into blogging (well, reading other's blogs) I become inspired to better my abilities as a quilter. And one that I think most quilters admit to needing help with is the dreaded WIP (work in process) pile. I swear I DON'T have ADHD. I have just have sooooo many projects I want to do, try, attempt, and hey, a girl has to justify that latest fabric purchase somehow!


So, in the spirit of so many other bloggers out there, I decided that while it is hopeless to think I won't start another project before finishing the one I'm on, I should at least TRY to finish as many as I start. I just haven't decided if that should be a monthly or annual goal. sigh. But, hey, I finished another quilt today! And this one is one I started over the summer. I can say that the time to finish (TTF) was cut down drastically by the decision to make this my sacrificial victim for my first attempt at machine quilting.

And I am most proud of myself. I think it turned out just wonderful, and I don't want to give it up. I can't decide what the deal breaker was though. Was it the fear of ruining a gorgeous quilt??? Or the new awesome machine??? Or the patience and desire to learn that my last birthday granted me (yeah, no.) I think it is a lot of reading on fellow bloggers, books, and realizing that I can only better myself and my hobby by trying new things. And honestly, taking a month to hand quilt is just so ugh.....
I posted this quilt in a previous blog. It's the one I decided to use as a progressive post. When I found the backing fabric I wanted, I thought about how so often the back gets over looked or is just a place for the stitching to show. I had some extra blocks and had seen others put something on the backing to tie into the beautiful fabrics used on the fronts, hence the strip between the panels.

It was a lot of fun to quilt, and the quilting sort of came to me by accident. As I was looking through a book, I saw a neat method of using a double needle to stitch a parallel stitch. So, I took it one step further and put my stitch-the-ditch foot on, straddled the needles over the guard, loaded up this pretty embroidery floss and poof!, off I went! On the boarders I decided to go with a pretty little stencil and then free hand the geese blocks with a single stitch method, but using the same thread. Now I just need to snips my tails and decide where it will "live" in the house!