Little RoO

Hi....I think I was very like you a while ago, the first large quilt top (70 x 70 inchs) I made was for my daughter as an 18th birthday present....it did not get sandwiched and quilted until she was 23 !...she is now 28.
My issue was that it just all seemed too challenging....how did I get the wadding and backing to be straight and smooth and how on earth do I get all that fabric through a domestic machine....in the end I watched loads of tutorials on you tube and decided I needed to take the plunge otherwise it would never come out of the carrier bag where it lived !
The delight from my daughter made it so worth while...it was certainly not perfect...not even really good, but the quilt is still intact and is still in constant use, and she loves it.
After doing that quilt it gave me confidence that I could do it..but it took time....I now love it all.
I have found a really easy way to sandwich quilts using my dining table and large clips from a DIY store and I love FMQ....still mainly do meandering, but I get the best feeling when I finish my quilts and I can say I did it all....every bit, including all the mistakes and there are always many of them !
I have upgraded my machine and now have the Janome 7700 ( bought second hand )with a much larger throat and it certainly is easier.
I hope that one day you too will love it......it just might take time...for me as I said earlier it was 5 years.
Good luck.

Picture is of my latest quilt..finished this week.

tropit

I'm with you...the quilting is my least favorite part. What's more, I don't want to send my baby out to have it quilted by someone else. I found that tying quilts can actually have quite a charming look, depending on the pattern. Plus, it's a lot faster, so I can get all my UFOs out of the way. I saw a book once, (Sorry, I can't remember the title, or author,) that was just about the clever ways that one could tie a quilt. I wish I had bought it.

~ Cindy

paoberle

I don't enjoy the quilting either, especially big projects. I will do straight line or random wavy line quilting on small projects. I enjoy hand work, so sometimes I hand quilt smaller projects, often doing big stitch quilting, but I really like to tie quilts. I find them to be softer and they drape better. I used to send quilts out to be quilted, but that can get expensive and I like to be able to say that I did the whole thing.

zozee

I love the fresh colors of your scrappy quilt! Crisp points and I do like the meandering.

If it takes me a long time, which it probably will, to get good enough to like my own quilting, it's okay. I need to push myself to do things that make me better, no matter what it is. GEtting better brings a joy of its own. If I DO, however, give it a year and still hate the quilting, I might then start sending them out to someone who will gladly do it for a price.

The delight of the recipient makes it ALL worth it, no matter how we choose to finish the thing, right?