Pillow talk

I didn't piece this quilt. The blocks were done for Andrea from a bee she was in and she decided she was going to give them away as she knew she'd never get around to making them. So I stuck my hand up and said I'd take them and make them up into a quilt to raise money for charity.

Andrea's blog was one of the very first quilt blogs I started following, back when she was called Millions Of Thoughts Trapped In My Head. Then she took possession of her very first longarm quilting machine earlier this year and is now called Urban Quilt Works. If you've ever wanted to follow the journey of a longarm machine from being unpacked to learning how to quilt on it, Andrea's blog is worth a look.

Photo nicked from Andrea's blog

I believe all these blocks are made from Denyse Schmidt fabrics and my original idea was just to sew them together, add batting and backing, quilt it and be done with it.

But then something happened.

Ann Petersen came into my life.

I've been aware of Craftsy for a while and although tempted by the various classes, I wasn't tempted by the approx £25 per class. Then a few months ago, I think they had a sale and I bit the bullet and bought the Learn How To Machine Quilt Big Projects On A Small Machine by Ann Petersen.

And suddenly Ann had me hooked. We've spent quite a bit of time together these past few months, although admittedly she's done all the talking. I've cooked, watched TV, done  helped the kids with their homework and quilted with Ann. We've also been to bed together a few times but to be honest Ann, one night I was really tired and you wouldn't stop talking, you just went on and on and I wasn't really listening to what you were saying and I'm afraid I fell asleep.

Sorry Ann.

What Ann doesn't know about quilting, I would imagine isn't worth knowing and suddenly I started thinking I would complete these blocks using Ann's QAYG (Quilt As You Go) instructions. I thought it would be a brilliant way to treat each block as a mini quilt and practice my rather limited repertoire of free-motion quilting skills.

I just kind of went random and did my own thing.

And I found the (imo) perfect fabric to segment each block together.

Which I then echoed in the three extra blocks I needed to make, to bring it up to a reasonable size.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process from start to finish. I felt I was more in control of my quilting, that I was really able to focus on one portable piece of stitching at a time.

I loved the way you could use up left over scraps for the backing pieces and random bits of batting for each block. And I used up leftover binding from other projects and the whole quilt just felt like it was pieced from scraps and leftovers and that felt good.

You kind of end up with a secondary quilt on the back with lots of little different quilted squares.


And so when I'd finished it I kind of felt Ann and I were done and I should look for someone new.
Cue another Craftsy sale last week and I purchased another class. Unfortunately things didn't work out: I just couldn't click with the teacher, I didn't feel that what they had to say was worth my money and I didn't really want to spend time with them. I'm sure it was all me but the feelings just weren't there. Very graciously, Craftsy took on board my feedback and I got a full refund.

I've licked my wounds, picked myself up and I'm heading back to Ann if she'll have me. I've realised the grass isn't always greener on the other side and that Ann is a very hard act to follow. I'm looking forward to snuggling up in bed with her as she talks  Beyond Basic Machine Quilting.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday

I don't know about you Ann but I can't wait.