I decided it was time to fire up George and get to some machine quilting. But while my piecing skills are really good, I am not quite so confident about my machine quilting skills. So I purchased a machine quilting class on Craftsy. They were having a sale so I bought two! :-) They are both taught by Christina Cameli. I have almost completed the first class, Free-Motion Quilting Essentials, and I am already feeling much better about my skill level. Just the exercise of quilting almost every day, even for a short time, has made me feel more comfortable with George and with my ability to move smoothly across a quilt. And now I have a nice little library of patterns to use as a reference when I go to quilt a real quilt.
So now I'm ready to quilt! I am starting with a quilt I made a long time ago. I choose a quilting design from my little blocks along with a traveling line. The picture is from the backside of the quilt so you can see the line better.
You know, I was real proud of this quilt, until I showed my husband John. I thought it was the Big and Little Dippers. John's immediate reaction was that I had the North Star incorrectly positioned, and the North Star is not really the largest star in the constellation. Now I'm not as happy with it. I don't know anymore whether I started the quilting at the top of the quilt or at the bottom. (If I asked him, John could tell me, but I probably won't!) But I was really pleased that I got almost half of the quilt quilted in an hour with George.
This will be a charitable donation, and some little boy or girl will love it.....even if the North Star is too big and not in the right position! :-D