I finally finished my APQ Block Swap quilt! The blocks were swapped in 2010. I'm really glad this is finished. I only need to put the label on - I hope I can find it. I'm sure it is here somewhere, but it's probably underneath something else!
I quilted it on my domestic sewing machine. The hardest part of doing the quilting myself is figuring out how I want to do the quilting. Of course, it is done by free motion (FMQ). At first, I was thinking about an "all over" pattern, but I didn't want to use a light colored thread in the black setting triangles and didn't want to use black thread on the rest of the quilt. So finally, I decided on what to do in the blocks which was a kind of swirl around the seams.
Next, what to do in the sashings? Luckily, I recently won the Free Motion Quilting book by Angela Walters. On page 44, she has a "Swirl Scroll" that I had already used in a couple borders and it was a lot easier than it looks, so I decided to use that in the sashing.
The black setting triangles weren't a problem because I already knew I would quilt hooked feathers in it. I think you can see them better in this blog post from a few days ago.
The inner 1" border got circle swirls, so that was easy. Then came the HST border, and I wasn't sure what to do there, but then I just got an idea, partly from DH and partly from some of the FMQ challenge lessons that I have done this year, so I just did squiggly lines going opposite ways on the light and dark parts.
The lessons I have completed from the FMQ challenge that sewcalgal is hosting have helped me immensely, not only in the actual quilting process, but in my attitude about the quilting. I'm glad that these experts have made me feel more free about trying things and about not being a "perfect" quilter. I'm doing this because I love it and enjoy it and if I was a perfectionist, I don't think I would enjoy it nearly as much. And luckily, the quilting itself isn't always really that visible and the mistakes aren't always that noticeable. And what if someone does notice an irregular line? Well, life is too short to worry about that. It is a lot of work, but I'm glad that I'm doing the quilting on my own quilts. The quilting part isn't for everyone, though and I understand that. Your quilts will be more professional looking than mine!
