Every blog has a first post, and although it seems like my favorite bloggers have mastered the art and are full of creativity and self confidence, I suppose that they all started somewhere too. For my starter, I’d like to show off an easy plus quilt that you can whip up for a quick weekend finish.

This was a fun pattern from a book that I bought at C&T Publishing’s crazy spring sale. $5 books??  Yes, Please!  “Go Big, Go Bold” was the title and I loved more than one pattern and especially appreciated the suggestions for incorporating the front-side pattern on the back (although I chose not to do so, this time). http://www.ctpub.com/go-big-go-bold-large-scale-modern-quilts/  I especially liked that this quilt was easy to whip up in a weekend, which gave me that all-important almost instant self-gratification.

While the top was certainly easy and quick to assemble, the basting was a challenge. I know that I am seriously basting deficient. In all but the smallest quilts, despite the best of intentions I always end up with a giant wrinkle. You know, the kind that could be seen from the space shuttle. I’ve tried many different methods with almost no success. My knees are too delicate (ha!) and my floors are too high traffic for floor basting. Using the dining room table and clamps held some promise but also resulted in some epic failures too. A friend had mentioned the existence of ceiling frames (mostly used for hand-quilting), but I don’t really have a space that would work. But then I thought that perhaps a large wall could work instead and I could try vertical basting. I took down my project wall (which is just a duvet cover) and went to work.

The safety pins were clipped onto each layer and looped over the black rope that normally supports my project wall.

A few obvious shortcomings quickly became apparent, mostly relating to my wall being too short for this project (and that I need to relocate the storage bins on the left side!). Despite the logistical challenges, I was quite happy with the basting results – I managed to avoid any epic wrinkles and got the job done in a relatively short period of time. This quilt is a twin size – so wider quilts will present additional challenges. I have a couple of ideas for improvements to the system. Watch this space!

Once properly basted, onward to the quilting. I do either free motion quilting or walking foot quilting on my domestic machine – A Bernina 1230 that a friend found at a garage sale for me. My FMQ meander is the easiest option, but I went for more of a modern twist and tried to keep most of the traveling on a left right axis. It went fairly quickly, although I needed to take quite a few breaks because it’s been a while since I last quilted.

The backing is a linen cotton blend that I got from Craftsy.  I do love their sale prices. It makes the quilt a little more girly than my usual, but most of the Zen Chic fabrics on the front already made this a feminine quilt.

And that’s it for my first post! I’ve got lots of things that I’m working on, so there will be lots to share going forward. I also have some good ideas for regular posts, so as my blogging skills progress there should be more interesting things on the way!
Thanks for reading!

Becky