Well, I finished my first quilt...
It turned out okay, all things considered. The binding is kind of terrible, but my machine really didn't like doing the binding, so I had to fudge it in spots. Also, I'm pretty sure I did a lot of it wrong. I'm really not sure I should do quilting on my machine. It's a Brother CS-6000i. I used flannel as the batting, and flannel on the back, and quilting cotton on top.
Anyway, I will definitely do the binding differently next time. I'm considering trying another, much smaller quilt, to test the limits of my machine more carefully. I know what really screwed me up was the corners. How do you do them properly? I did what made sense in my head, but after doing that, I realized that I think that was wrong. I do a lot of origami, so I was applying that kind of technique. Haha. But now I'm wondering if I should have somehow cut it (as in shape it by cutting rather than by folding) at the corners or something?
Anyway, other than the binding, I think it turned out not too bad. There were a couple of hiccups on the back where the fabric got folded over slightly. Also, my walking foot wasn't working right. I think something is loose inside, because it didn't want to come up enough to pass the fabric through, so periodically I would have to stop, lift the foot (needle down), and straighten out the fabric underneath. It wasn't a tension issue (which is what I thought at first), it was the feed dogs on the walking foot not coming up all the way. It's the walking foot that came with the machine, and the feed dogs are plastic, so I'm wondering if the quality is not great on the internal workings of the foot. Anyone else have this machine and have issues with the walking foot? I changed the needle, opened up everything and cleaned the machine, but none of that seemed to be contributing to the issue.
I did not try any free motion quilting, since it was my first quilt and I wanted to keep it very simple just for the experience. I'm a learn by doing person, so this has definitely helped me familiarize myself with the process.
Anyway, my three year old loves it, so I'm happy. =)