I started this post this morning, realized that I was about to be late for work and dashed out the door. I was late, however, it wasn’t such a big deal.
Like most quilters I began my foray into quilt making as primarily a hand quilter. I enjoy the peace and stress relief that hand quilting brings. Renee is primarily a machine quilter and has been from the beginning. At our guild meetings we would talk, me not quite getting the whole thing about machine quilting and Renee encouraging me to at least give it a shot. 
The last piece I started hand quilting is Maggie’s Quilt. Maggie is my niece and such a lively vibrant young kid. Smiling since the day she was born. I started her quilt when she was about 2, I’m still working on it. I am a pokey hand quilter. Just like I’ll rip out machine work I don’t like, I’ll rip out hand stitching I don’t like. The flowers shown here are from Maggie’s Quilt and they’re free form. I have quite a bit of hand quilting to do yet, but in the mean time I’m also quilting this by machine.
I have my sisters permission and encouragement to complete the quilting by machine. After seeing some of the stitching I’d already completed she’s completely fine with it. I’m glad…unfortunately this is one of those pieces I don’t get to work on very often because I usually have several other projects I’m working on that push this one aside. I’m waiting to go to Lancaster to pick up some thread, batting and any other thing I can get my hands on and I’m waiting for some direction on another project so it seemed like a good idea to pick this one up and see where I am.
When I started this quilt I found this beautiful tonal pink floral with a white back ground. It’s soft and feminine. The more color I added the more the white stood out like a sore thumb, so I’m quilting it in gold. I really like the effect this has.
It really changes the look of the flowers…then I decided to give them a bit more definition with some maroon around the major flowers nearest the white.
I’m doing a lot of quilting!…
I doodle a lot to practice quilting…Mary Anne always says that if you can doodle the design you’d like then you’ll be able to do quilt it on fabric. She’s right the more I play with quilt design the easier it becomes to sit and quilt.
Happy Quilting!
Teri
What gorgeous quilting! Your niece will love it!
Your doodling and quilting are wonderful. I like it that you enjoy both hand and machine quilting. Carolyn in Kerrville, TX
I’m a new (machine) quilter; want to make a baby quilt for my daughter, who is expecting in September, and would like some ideas about simple designs that I can sew on the nearly finished quilt (when I get there). Thanks.
Irene, email a photo to me through the site here and I’d be happy to give you suggestions.