Looks great -

Why were you worried it would fall apart?

Yes, it's flannel. I worried it would fall apart because I've never made one before, and some of the seam allowances were narrower than they should have been. This is only about my 10th quilt. I still have a LOT to learn. With this one, I learned how to avoid getting the "bend" when I cut my fabrics. I didn't realize that if the grain of the fabric isn't straight, I would get the bend. I have been so dutifully straightening all of my selvages, but not necessarily to my advantage. Duh.

It seems I learn something with each quilt I make. I only took one quilting class; otherwise, I'm self-taught. The teacher that taught my class did me a great favor by reading an essay about the "perfect" quilt. It was written by a woman, Teri Christopherson, whose first child was born with an incapacitating form of mental retardation known as Angelmann's Syndrome. In her essay she encouraged people to have fun with their quilting and not be to critical. She said that if we were too critical of our work, we would become frustrated and quit, ironically preventing ourselves from becoming the good quilters we would like to be. She talked about her daughter who was "imperfect," yes, "but somehow perfect." She said the perfect child was like the perfect quilt--perfect in its imperfection. Hearing her story has allowed me to learn to quilt in a light-hearted way--which is not generally my style. As a result, I'm enjoying this new hobby in a way I have never enjoyed a hobby before.

Thank you al for your kind comments.

I know I'm still learning - usually after having done something bass-ackwards or in a very inefficient way.

I think if a quilt gets finished enough to be useable - it's a great quilt!

As far as I know, I think wider seam allowances are suggested for flannel blocks.

With more experience, one learns that some of the directions/instructions are inaccurate and/or confusing. It's nice/fun to get to that stage!

I like it!

Really like your choice of colors and pattern. Love the narrow seams...makes the quilt looks less bulky.

That is so pretty. I love your fabrics. Great job.

It's beautiful!! :D

Love your colors ! I also seem to gravitate to rag quilts :lol: What size squares did you use ? for both the larger patches and the smaller 4 squares.. Thanks
Sharon

i love it. you did a fantastic job

This pattern was in the April/May 09 issue of Quilt magazine. The large squares are 13-1/2 inches and the smaller squares for the four patches are 7 inches. The original pattern did not use batting, but I decided to use it anyway. I cut the batting into 12-1/2 inch squares. For the four patches, I stitched in the ditch (as the pattern said to do), and I also tied the batting in the center of each of the 7-inch squares using a bottonhole stitch on my sewing machine. If I were going to make this quilt again, I would also tie it at each corner because it bunched up in the corners a little bit when I washed it--no harm done, since no one but me will notice. For the larger squares I stitched straight across the center of the block, and then again three inches to each side.

The pattern called for 8 yards of a striped fabric. That is the main fabric with the logs and bear tracks. Then I noticed that she had actually sewn her own striped fabric using strips of fabric. Then she stitched in the ditch of those stripes. It made me kind of mad when I realized it because I knew my quilt wouldn't look like hers and I'd already bought the fabric. As it turns out, I like the looks of mine better so it all worked out in the end.