Sandy,where did you get that picture of me at 4 am?
kathy

WOW, what a wonderful job for a first quilt. You must be very proud.

BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! Thanks for sharing.I'm just getting started. Mine dont't hold a candle to yours. Keep us posted on your future work

Gorgeous!

What a tremendous effort for a 1st quilt... love the colours.... please keep us posted with other quilts you make.... would love to see them.... talk about being talented.... Joy.

Yes the quilt is gorgeous! I would like to ask you about the machine quilting of the basptist fan motif. I have always liked that look, but thought it could only be accomplished by hand. Some call it elbow quilting. Could you share a bit on how it it done on machine?

Whether or to hand or machine quilt....a bit guestion. Here's what I think you need to consider before deciding:
1) How much time do you want to spend finising your quilt? Hand quilting takes a LONG time. Although machine quilting can be a bit intimidating to start and takes quite a bit of practice (so does good hand quilting by the way), you can finish a quilt MUCH quicker. Just practice a bit with your less favorite fabrics made up into a quilt sandwich to get the feel for it.
2) How special is this quilt to you? I wouldn't spend the time hand quilting any thing that didn't mean a lot to me as there are too many quilts to make.
3) How much will the hand quilting show up? If there are busy patterns in the fabric, you can spend hours and hours hand quilting and not be able to see all your hard work. I'd save my hand quilting time for a quilt that will really show it off.
4) How well is the top pieced. I am in the process of hand quilting my first quilt. I decided to hand quilt it because I hand pieced it. Its a great labor of love. Would I hand quilt this same quilt again, if I could make my decision over again? Probably--because its my first quilt AND I had hand pieced it. If I hadn't hand pieced it there's NO WAY I would spend the time hand quilting it--the worksmanship in my piecing is just way too poor to warrant all of this time. Also, because I didn't know what I was doing, I made my hand-quilting job MUCH tougher than it needed to be. Uneven seams, too much bulk, etc. Also, I didn't know what I was doing when I picked my batting...its making my job harder, too. There are battings to use for hand quilting and ones not to use--I have a 'not to use' one in my quilt. Now, when I want to hand-quilt, I START my quilt with that in mind. I pick fabrics and a pattern that will do justice to the extra time that will be involved. I press all the seams open to avoid bulk at seam intersections. I used a high-quality cotton (no 'natural' batting with "slubs" in it that are impossible to quilt through evenly) or a polyester batting.

I hope this is helpful in your making a decision on whether or not to hand quilt your quilt

That is beautiful! I don't normally like samplers, but yours is wonderful. I think it is the continuity of colors. Especially since they are 3 colors I love! Great job! Barb C.

Me too! I love the look of Baptist fans and would love to know how to do them with a machine. Barb C.

What an excellent job! I bet you're already getting excited to make the next one, after such fabulous results!