I Wish You A Merry QAL – Completed Quilt
This quilt along has been such a great learning experience for me, and I even used this opportunity to stretch my quilting skills. I am so proud of the finished quilt, as I straight-line and free motion quilted the entire thing!
I used straight line quilting to stitch-in-the-ditch for outlining the different blocks and secure the basting before free motion quilting each of the different blocks. I used a ribbon candy design on all the sashing on the quilt.
My favorite quilting is on the Christmas Trees block, where I used infinity loops to highlight a chevron pattern.
For the poinsettia block, I used my walking foot and straight line quilted the block.
Lessons learned:
- There is major truth in "The best way to hide imperfect quilting is to surround it with imperfect quilting." Quote from Christa Watson of Christa Quilts.
- I doodled infinity loops all through high school and it’s one of the quilting motifs that I feel I mastered quickly. I need to doodle more designs that I would want to include in my quilting.
- I quilted each block differently and kept thinking, why did I not use the quilt-as-you-go method!?! Something to do for the next quilt along!
Don't forget to submit your completed quilt top in the linky party below (you do not need a url to post), the Facebook Group Page, and/or on Instagram with #iwishyouamerryqal, to be entered into the grand prize drawing! One lucky person will win a 6-month subscription to Make Modern, a fabric bundle from RJR Fabrics, a 10" stack of River's Edge fabrics from Island Batik, 2 PDF patterns of their choice from Yvonne Fuchs of Quilting JETgirl, a Warm 100 Queen size batting from The Warm Co., a Merry Merry Aurifil thread box from Aurifil, and one pair of Warm Crochet scissors. WOW!
The prize entry window ends in one week at 11:59PM Eastern on January 15, 2018.
If you are just now joining us in the QAL, I have a quick links page to catch up on the blocks in this QAL and my associated blog posts. You can also get to that page at any time by clicking the I Wish You a Merry QAL button on the right sidebar.
Remember that the patterns are only free until the end of the QAL at 11:59PM Eastern on January 15, 2018.
Happy Sewing! I can’t wait to see your quilts!
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Join me again on Friday for Friday Foto Fun and on Sunday for the #365DayOfArtPBQChallenge! Link up and share your progress on your own projects!
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Love your ribbon candy sashing! So interesting to see the variety of layouts and colors used.
Thank you so much Nancy! This quilt turned out so much better than I could have ever hoped! All my free motion quilting classes and practice really paid off.
Hi Sherry!
B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L.!!!!!! I cannot believe that you didn’t have confidence in your quilting prior to this. Stop that right this minute. I mean it – I would add you middle name if I knew it. You did a fabulous job. Fabulous! I wish I could look at it closer – to really enjoy those trees and stuff. I’m going to start following you so I can continue to be inspired by your wonderful talent that you are minimizing. ~smile~ Roseanne
Thank you so much Roseanne! Also I fixed my images so you can click on them to get to the full image size to zoom in! I didn’t realize I had forgotten to link it! I think a lot of free motion quilting is all about confidence. I’ve taken lots of classes and practiced, but never put everything together before now. I am beyond pleased with how this turned out 🙂
Hi again,
Thanks so much for fixing those links! It is even better – is that possible – now that I can really lust after your trees and poinsettia blocks! So, so, SO nice! I understand the whole practicing the design first but were you able to quilt this with little starting and stopping? Just wondering if you spent time planning your route so to speak – that seems to be where I fail. I get stuck right away and then go back to straight line quilting that I’m comfortable with. You should be very pleased with yourself! You did a great job. ~smile~ Roseanne
I actually started and stopped a bunch! I did all the ribbon candy first and then quilted each individual block. I *should* have planned better, but sometimes I figure it’s easier on my mind to just to bury my threads from all the starts and stops.
So many fun things to look at on your quilt. I think the quilting in the trees is my favorite too. Everyone did such a great job with their quilts. So much creativity.
Thank you so much! This was a great learning experience for me and I’m so happy with how it turned out! Hope you visit my blog again 🙂
The quilting looks great! I especially like the quilting in the tree farm block. I have just a little bit of hand binding left on mine, can’t wait to finish!
Thank you!!! Can’t wait to see your quilt all finished! <3
Sherry, Your quilt is GORGEOUS!!!! The quilting is exquisite! I had to look several times at the tree block to figure out how you did that one. Easy peasy and such a nice effect. I still haven’t finished my top. Another round of eye surgeries just after Christmas set me back again. I am thankful that I can see albeit a bit blurry yet. So I’m not sure it will be finished in 5 days.
Thanks Karen!!! I hope your eyes heal quickly! I can’t wait to see your finished quilt whenever you can get it done 🙂