First Client Quilt!

I was excited, and also a lot a bit nervous to quilt my first client quilt. It's ok if I mess up on my own fabric, but for a customer, it has to be perfect, right? Luckily in my disclaimer at my quilt guild meeting I mentioned that I am a beginner, and that these would be my practice quilts.

So, this quilt did not come out perfectly (practice makes perfect), but it was definitely a step in the right direction. I got to practice my SITD (stitch in the ditch), freehand, as well as using my groovy board templates, so future quilts should come out better! I also learned the importance of quality thread, as the majority of my troubles came from tension problems: thread breaking, seeing top thread on back, bottom thread on top, etc. Luckily I used better thread for my second client quilt, but you're just going to have to wait to see that one!

Closeup of the teddy bear. I used a basic meander/stipple over the bear's body.

Corner detail: crosshatching over yellow background, Groovyboard heart in corner, loopy pink border, freehand loops with stars and hearts over outside border.

Back of the quilt: basic meander over teddy bear body.

Having some fun

Again, it has been a while since my last post (just over a month), but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. I somehow managed to get my longarm machine and table to my house from my parent's house and I have really enjoyed playing around on it.

Due to size constraints, both of car and house, I have only been able to set up the 8 foot section of the table up, so I can only do quilts that are less than 86" wide, but that should be enough to get me started!

I had tension problems at first as you can see above the bar.

At my last guild meeting I announced my intention of starting a longarm quilting business and offered to machine quilt up to 10 baby size quilts free of charge to get some practice. I've done 2 so far, and my skills really seem to be improving every time I quilt.
Of course I took pictures of the 2 quilts I have completed, but I will save that for a later post.
In the meantime you can check them out, and much more on my facebook business page:
Quilt ME