Quiltingboard Forums - My first quilt off the longarm

I made this top more then 10 years ago. It was probably my second bed size quilt top. I got as far as the inner border and deemed it a WOMBAT minus the B (Waste of Material and Time). I really disliked the colors once all together in the quilt. Not only that but one of my cats had puked on it and stained it. I washed the top alone and the stain didn't come out. I was lucky I didn't ruin the top. It has mismatched points but it was pretty square. When I got my long arm I had no quilt tops ready to practice on so I remembered this top. I still had the black fabric so I slapped another border on it. OK, I think to myself, I like it a little better now. I figured it would be a perfect quilt to practice longarming on because I really didn't care if I totally ruined it. I still am not crazy about the colors but I have to say, the quilting really brought this baby to life. I backed it with orphan blocks, old stash fabric and the pink I ordered on line for really cheap, $3 something a yard it was. I decided to really let myself have some fun with this so I did swirly flowers in the friendship stars and the 54-40 or fight blocks I did this really cool swirly sunburst that I got the idea for from the last keepsake quilting catalog. In the rust border I did a stencil motif and then pebbling all around to really make the stencil motif pop. I just did a simple loop in the outer borderd which was good because that was my warmup for every session. Everything except the stencil motifs was totally freehand with no marking. Let me know what you think of my very first long arming. I think I did OK :lol:

Still on the rack

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the quilt out on my lawn

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close up of pebbling around a stencil

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The back

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close up of back to see the quilting better

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close up of sunburst in 54-40 or fight

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