Quiltingboard Forums - My most fun quilt ever! Flip Flop/sandals QAYG

I was inspired by a couple of quilts posted on this board and THEN I picked up a Fons and Porter quilting magazine at a thrift shop for 75cents with a flip flop quilt in it. Since it is summer, I just decided to "do it".

So, I tried it. It was my first serious attempt at applique and I loved it. Then, I decided, Oh well, since I'm doing new things, I'll go ahead and try QAYG and then, I decided to FMQ--all which were new to me. Previously I've only ever done straight stitches, either in the ditch or not with feed dogs in normal position. I had been terrified to try FMQ. I didn't practice for hours and and hours first--I figured in the future I can look back to my first FMQ and see how awful it was, but, for me, it was a great beginning. I just finished it last night.

It was fun! Everyone (female) who sees this quilt smiles.

The challenge for me was doing the borders. The original instructions I saw on this method were at Leah Day's site, but no one mentions how to add borders. So, I just "did it", by sewing the borders on in order (first pink, then blue, then sandals fabric, and then adding the border backing (trickiest part) which was one piece of yellow and then sticking in the batting, pinning carefully and quilting.

I'm thinking about what I can do next. So many projects, so little time. Now I'm checking out different QAYG methods, trying to see how to do it. I think I'm "late to the party" as evidenced by many posts here, but we are all at different places in our quilting lives.