2nd Quilt off my New APQS Lenni 😀
 

Hi!
In anticipation of my new Lenni arriving, I made up this quilt with leftover flannel from a couple of Olaf quilts I made in the last year with a bit of stash added to it, to create a quilt I could practice on and would be suitable to donate to the local Quilts 4 Kids group I volunteer for. It will finish at 54" X 45". While it was more work quilting-wise than I would normally put into a donation quilt, I wanted structured practice, so I threw the book at it, so to speak. I am a rank amateur, and only quilt for myself. On this project I tried a few new to me designs and some tried and true from my repertoire built on my Sweet 16 Sitdown.
I recently took some classes with Krista Withers (Awesme btw :)) and she suggested we try our hand at doing grid work on the longarm without rulers. So of course I had to try it! The triple lined grid near the bottom of the quilt was done freehand. I just marked a single line 1 1/5" grid with disappearing marker! And went for it. While I realize it isn't as perfect as a ruler stitched grid, it's a pretty awesome outcome for a first attempt, IMHO. Marking to stitched, about an hour! If you haven't tried it, you may want to. The quilt is complete with its warts, as I only ripped out when the bobbin ran out and left all the other bloopers in. I will never be a show quilter, but just enjoy the creative process and FMQ so much. Clearly, I have lots of areas to work on for improvement! I have a second similar top made up to do as well, but this one's done! Yay! I couldn't wait to share this, so thank you in advance for taking a peek.

Lovely quilting!!!!!!

Wow! fantastic first (or hundreth) quilt

Very nice!! My!!

Beautiful work! You have a real talent.

Leslie

Wowzer! Terrific quilting!

Your quilting is stunning!

Wow, that quilting is to die for!

Awesome quilting...especially for your second LA piece and since it is quite a change to move the machine with your new Lenni vs. moving the quilt with your Sweet 16. Looks like you've got it down pat.

Really great! You are already an expert.

Wow! That does not look like "rank amateur" quilting. It's stunning!

Holy cow that is amazing! I don't care about warts I don't see any, I think if this is just practice you have the abilities right now to enter your quilts into local shows and see what you get.

Simply awesome! I agree, enter it in a show, you'd be surprised at the ribbon it takes!

very nicely done

Kwilter - you sure do well with "practice" - lovely.

Ok.....you talked me into it. A class with Krista. I'd like to blame my dreadful quilting on my degenerative arthritis of the spine and the missing bones.....but that just doesn't sound like it will fly. You are an inspiration to us all.

Did you mark it before quilting or was it freehand? I hesitate with marking because I'm not sure if it should be done before hand or on the frame or what, so I just wing it (and it usually shows!)

Amazing!! Your quilting work is beautiful.

wow! Gorgeous quilting!

Wow! That is very well done. I see great things in your future! Thank you for showing us your early work. One of the things I enjoy most about this board is that people share their problems, progress and achievements along the way.

Well, if you call that a beginners quilting, then I expect you will eventually win some ribbons for your work.

girl, you got this. beautiful work.

All the quilts in the show don't get a ribbon, but it's nice to see them all there. I don't enter for the ribbon, I enter to fill out the show. I have won a few ribbons, but this is just frosting on the cake. We have a very small show and it is just fun to see all the quilts there. They are judged by the audience.

Oh my goodness!! Your quilting is absolutely beautiful!!! I am so jealous!!

Awesome quilting! You must have some long arm experience to have done so well right off the bat.

amazing quilting

I certainly think you could put this in a show your quilting is fabulous.

Hi! I marked the "I heart OLAF" before I loaded the quilt because I wanted to get the placement and spacing and wouldn't have been able to see that with the quilt loaded. The rest of it, I marked on the fly, on the frame. I had a general idea of what I was going to do in each area and had done some measuring beforehand so knew the size I needed for the squares running up the right hand side for instance.
Kathy

All can say is WOW!

Thank you everyone for your kind and generous comments and feedback. I've found the transition to the longarm has been quite an eye opener in both quilting approach and moving the machine to do what I want to do. When I finally made the decision to put a deposit down (over the phone) on one, I began to freak out and wonder what the heck I was thinking!!! I called the dealer, about 8 hours away and shared my nervousness about it. He invited me to come and play on one of their machines in their shop (they rent out longarm time) for a day. So I took a quilt sandwich (about 36" square top) in of solid fabric, which I pre marked with some areas and borders to see what I could do with it. They showed me how to load it, what the buttons were for on the machine and where the prewound bobbins were and left me to it. I spent the day filling up my sandwich, trying designs forward, backward and up and down. It was a very humbling experience, but it gave me hope that maybe I could do this. Until then I had not even tried the machine I was buying and had only a few 30 second tries on long arms set up at a few quilt shows I've been to over the last few years. I have to say that the quilting I've done on my HQ Sweet Sixteen Sitdown machine and what I learned in the process have really helped me get up and running on the Longarm. You all have been so encouraging. Thanks again for taking a moment to comment.
Kathy

Really, your quilting is wonderful.

oh gosh, that one is as beautiful on the back as it is on the front. wonderful work.

You did some very beautiful quilting. Nice job.

Great job and yes, you did throw the book at it.
Looks like you learned a lot and very quickly.

Wow that's fantastic! How could it need any improvement??? If I had the patience to quilt like that I would be so happy.

Beginner? Doesn't look like it to me! Beautiful quilting! I think my fav are the stars, but they all look great!

OH, I think that quilting is so lovely.

That's a lot of quilting

I find your work very impressive. You deserve high marks IMO.