MY QUILTING JOURNAL❣️

My Grandma Nellie always made us quilts and afghans and gifted them to us when we got married.  I still have both of mine.  I wish we would have kept some kind of record or journal of all the quilts and afghans that she made so that we could look back and see them all now. With eight children and 26 grandchildren that was a whole lot of sewing and crocheting. 
        

The afghan that my grandma crocheted for me.

    

The quilt that my grandma made for me.

My mom made cross stitch quilts for all of her grandchildren and great grandchildren.  My mom had four children, nine grandchildren and three great grandchildren - so far.  My mom started cross stitching these when she retired and made a baby quilt for each of her grandchildren as they were born and also for those that would some day be born.  But she didn't stop there.  She also made a quilt to give to each of her children to use in their homes when the grand babies came to visit. One year I gave my mom a quilting journal and we recorded each quilt that she made and who it was for and then included a picture of her holding the quilt. I only have these three photos from my computer files to share on here.  The rest of the photos are in boxes in my closet, which I can't open, because we built my longarm in front of it in order to fit it into the room.

My mom would cross stitch the quilt and then we would shop for the backing fabric and then I would sew the backing on for her along with the binding and then she would tie the quilt. She also kept a written journal as she did the cross stitching of what was going on in the world at the time and what was going on in her life.  She would put that along with a picture of her holding the quilt into an envelope and store it with the quilt until it was time to give it to one of her children or grandchildren.  I remember being at one baby shower and the journal that she had written had recorded the events of 9-11 as she had stitched the quilt. Each journal for each quilt is different and records a bit of history from that time. They are really something to read!  

My mom and her granddaughter at her baby shower 
opening up the quilt that she made for her.

There are still some quilts that my mom made that have not been opened yet.  I have two quilts wrapped in acid free tissue paper stored in my home.  One is for my son when he has a baby and one is for me when he has a baby.  I can't wait to read what my mom wrote in her journal as she stitched them all those years ago.  My mom and dad are now both in Heaven.  They taught us all about love just by being "in love" their whole lives.  I remember my dad coming into the kitchen and hugging my mom up in a huge bear hug.  He always did that.  As a child it made me feel that everything was right in my world. This world is so different now without them. We miss them both very much!  It will be very special when we open up my mom's quilts for my son when he has a baby someday and read what she wrote in her journals for us. What a beautiful way to send her love to us all! 

Now that I'm quilting again I made my own quilting journal.  I record each quilt and all the relevant information for each one.  It's really for my personal use though, so that I can go back and see which thread worked and what batting and quilting ruler I used, things like that.  My real quilting journal is this blog.  From the first blog that I wrote here to each continuing one I mean to record all the quilts that I make.  An online blog is a journal for this day and age and a way to record my quilting journey. I probably will never have much of a following on here but that's fine with me because I'm just hoping that someday when I'm gone that my family can look back through this blog and see all the quilts that I made and all the love that I stitched into my quilts.

Just like my grandma and my mom ...

The signature and date stitched onto the quilt that my mom
made for the quilt that will go to my son someday.

Pick up a needle and thread and quilt some love into your world❣️

THE BRUSH STROKES QUILT 🐻

I bought the material for this Brush Strokes Quilt long before I bought my longarm, but once I finished piecing the top together I just couldn't envision giving it to a professional longarmer to quilt it.  "I" wanted to quilt this quilt with ruler work from top to bottom.  Me.  Just me and only me.  I just couldn't give my work over to someone else to quilt it.  Am I the only one who feels this way ... that if someone else quilts your top then that quilt is no longer just your work of art?  No, right? Because then it becomes your quilt AND some other stranger's quilt and I just couldn't do that.  This is the reason that there is a longarm sitting behind me as I type this blog and now my little works of art are all my very own!

I pieced this top back in May of 2018 and it has laid on my guest bed all this time waiting to be quilted.  First I had to convince myself to buy a longarm.  Then I had to wait till they delivered the longarm. Then I had to wait until they came and built the longarm. Then I had to teach myself to use the longarm.  And then I had to do some other quilts before I trusted myself to quilt this one on the longarm.  

This quilt stayed on my frame the longest of any of the quilts that I have done so far.  I didn't run into any difficulties while quilting this it was just a lot of slow and patient ruler work. Also, Christmas interrupted my quilting schedule and then I went and got the flu.  Ugh! The Christmas part was fun, the flu ... not so much.  

I left the brush strokes themselves unquilted and just stitched in the ditch around them so that they would pop.  I would have liked to use wool on top of the Quilter's Dream white polyester batting to have them pop even more but this quilt and its twin (that is sitting in the drawer waiting to be pieced) will get a lot of wear and tear and loving snuggles so I thought a single poly batt would be best so that it could be washed regularly. 

This quilt and its twin will be used on our blowup mattresses when little ones come to visit. We get lots of those little visits.  I'm also hoping that someday those little visitors will be my grandchildren since it was my grandchildren that I had in mind for these. Once I started piecing this first quilt I found robot sheets that went with it perfectly.  So, I ordered two sets.  

The rObOt sheets!

The second quilt will have a blue backing while this one has a very pretty light turquoise backing.  I'm not sure if I want to quilt the second one identical to the first one or do a whole different playful design. I won't know that until I get there, which is half the fun of quilting on the longarm!

The quilt on the blow up mattress with the robot sheets on.

This quilt is very modern and very geometric so I wanted to quilt it in all geometric shapes ... but in a playful way.  That's why I added a 4 1/2 inch white border to the pattern.  The original pattern stops at the colorful squares border, but I thought all those little colored squares would make a nice inner border.  

Before I added an additional outside border.

From the start I envisioned playful little balls dancing around the whole quilt. The rest of the quilting just kinda happened as I went and I'm happy with the way it turned out. I always love how differently a quilted top looks from the flat pieced top.  It just comes alive with the quilting!

I used a white Isacord 40 weight thread on the top and in the bobbin and a light blue Isacord thread through the colored squares on the inner border. Using a white thread meant that I had to cross those dark blue brush strokes and having that white thread show on that blue fabric. If you stitch directly in the ditch the thread sinks in and you barely see it. Stitching directly in the ditch each time is a perfection I haven't quite yet mastered but I did a pretty good job of it. 

Over the holidays I came across a discount code to use at dutchlabelshop.com for some labels to sew onto my quilts. You can design them however you like and they are very reasonable in price.  I was going to sew the label right into the binding and let it hang loose but I decided at the end to just sew it at an angle in the corner of the backing.

I have a few more quilts that I'm making before I start the second one of these. And I bought a third one to make as a gift.  Hopefully, when I do these other two it won't involve anything at all to do with the flu!  

I really loved watching this quilt come alive.  It was a long, long process with all of that ruler work but well worth it in the end.  Cocoa Bear 🐻 (my son's favorite bear when he was a little boy and who has pride of place on our guest bed) seems to enjoy it!  

Remember to pick up a needle and thread and sew some love into your world❣️

THE SPECTRUM QUILT ❤️

This gorgeous Spectrum Quilt is designed by Alison Glass and it's one of my fav❤️rite quilts.  The colors are vibrant and the combination of batik and chambray fabrics give it a richness to its feel.  

I had wanted to purchase this as a kit but Alison no longer had any left on her site, she only had the pattern for sale.  I wrote her and she was kind enough to cut yardage from her Handcrafted Patchwork line for me from her shop.  I find that quilters are always the kindest of people! Then I was able to find the Andover Chambray fabric from various online sources to replicate the original quilt that she had made.  

I intended on making a queen size quilt but directly after ordering the pattern and fabrics I purchased my very own BERNINA Q24 longarm. At first, I was going to get a 12 foot longarm but then I decided to get a 9 foot.  The upside to getting a 9 foot was that the longarm fit into our room without cutting out the wall.  The downside was that I can't fit a queen size quilt onto a 9 foot frame.  I was able to cut this quilt down to a throw size but I still waited to put it on the longarm until I had some practice under my belt because I really loved this quilt and I wanted to gift it to my son and his wife for Christmas.

For the queen size quilt I had ordered 3/4 yardage of each of the fabrics but for the throw I only needed 1/2 yard cuts.  This meant I had extra fabric but it turned out to be a good thing because instead of just cutting out squares and then dividing them in fourths to make the triangles I was able to make a triangle template and fussy cut each triangle separately and get a much cooler look!  Most of the fabrics have huge vibrant designs on them and fussy cutting them was fun. If you're reading this and you're not a quilter, fussy cutting just means that you take your template and put it exactly over the part of the design that you want to cut out instead of getting the random parts and pieces that you would get if you just cut your square into triangles.  

I prewashed my fabrics.  First I tested all the batik fabric by rubbing the corner of each color with a white cloth dipped in hot water.  If the fabric had transferred color to this cloth I would have pretreated it with Retayne.  None of the colors rubbed off of the fabric so I washed all the batik fabrics in Synthrapol.  Using Synthrapol removes the extra wax and dye from the fabric.  I used a delicate cycle on warm and then put them in the dryer on a low temperature and took them out while still damp and hung them up to dry.  Then I ironed them and used Best Press to give them back their shape and feel.  If you have precut strips or squares you have to skip the prewashing step because the fabric will shrink too much and you might not have the amount that you need for your pattern.  Ask me how I know this?  

Stitching the quilt top was a dream.  Have you ever worked with chambray before?  I love, love chambray!  Not only is it a joy to work with but it has a very masculine feel and look to it.  I felt like with the chambray and the batik together that the look of the quilt worked well for both my son and his wife.

The pieced top laying on the loft floor in the sun.

Next I loaded it onto the longarm.  My favOrite part!  I used ruler work for the entire quilt.  I loaded it with the sashings going horizontal so that it would be easier to quilt each sashing in one pass.  I also cut my backing so that the seam down the middle would load horizontal.  

I used three different threads to stitch this quilt with.  First I used Superior Threads MicroQuilter thread #7007 in Silver.  It's a 100 weight thread so that when you stitch across multiple colors the silver actually reflects those colors and blends in.  It doesn't quite blend in as much on the darkest colors but it works pretty well.  The only problem with a 100 weight thread is that you don't see the quilting as much.  With this quilt, however,  that wasn't a problem because I wanted the vibrant color patchwork to be the star and not the quilting. In the sashing though, I used a 40 weight Isacord thread in Light Sage.  This gave the plain sashing some character because the quilting stands out with a 40 weight. In the bobbin I used Superior Threads Bottom Line which is a 60 weight and is designed for use in the bobbin and pairs well with the MicroQuilter thread.  

Threaded through the first and second normal guides
and then through the back guide on the other side.

My problem with the Bottom Line thread was getting it wound onto a bobbin.  No matter what speed I tried the bobbin was loose and mushy. It wouldn't even register on the TOWA gage.  I've read about this same problem on my FaceBook longarm group but no one had any solutions for it.  I finally ran the thread through a third thread guide and it came out much better. I think doing this just gave the thread more tension as it loaded onto the bobbin.

My favorite part of having a quilt loaded on the frame
is when the backing starts to show on the take up bar.

I used Quilter's Dream Orient batting.  This batting is made from a blend of bamboo, silk and cotton. The Orient batting makes the quilt so soft and pliable.  It's my favorite batting so far for quilts that will actually be used to snuggle up with.  It reminds me of my Grandma's quilts because she used flannel instead of batting in hers and that's how they feel.

This is my favorite quilt so far!  I just fell in love with the colors when I first saw it on Alison Glass's website.  I knew then that I wanted to make it for my son and his wife.  Here are some pictures of the quilt being enjoyed on Christmas Day! 

Merry Christmas!  And remember to pick up a needle and thread and sew some love into your world❣️

THE ORANGE 🍊 PEEL PRACTICE QUILT

I was in my local quilt shop one day and saw a packet of hand painted Bali Batik 10" square medallion fabrics.  It just happened to be a sale day so I thought I would grab them up.  I thought these would be perfect to stitch up as a quick practice quilt and then I could use my rulers in each square and teach myself how to make orange peels. 

The quilt went together quickly, but as things go, the pieced top sat there on the guest bed for quite some time as other quilts took precedent.  Finally, I got around to sitting down and marking the quilt out for the ruler work. Marking a quilt is my least favorite part of quilting. During this time I saw and followed a link that someone had put up on the FaceBook longarm group page to a stencil company that sold stencils and pounce.  I have never used pounce before but it seemed like an incredibly quick way to mark a quilt.  So, I quit marking my quilt the old fashioned way and waited for my package to arrive. It finally came and I followed all the directions and got the pounce into the pounce pad and was all ready to go. I have to say the pounce does go on quick, BUT and this is a big BUT, the pounce comes off just as quickly when you turn the longarm on.  It seems that the vibration of the longarm bounces it right off. Not only does it bounce right off but it bounces UP AND INTO your lungs.  I swear my lungs hurt for an entire day.  The package directions tell you that if you have this problem you need to spray the pounce with hair spray.  Hmmmm, no thanks. I just didn't want to spray the quilt and me and the longarm with hairspray, so, off the stencils and pounce and pounce pad went to EBay and they are now in someone else's home wreaking havoc to someone else's lungs.  So, then I ordered a marking ruler that had one inch slots. This also sounded great and a much quicker solution than just measuring things out using a traditional ruler.  The marking ruler arrived in the mail and I tried it.  It said that most marking pens and chalk pencils worked with it. I have to say the going was slow as the marking pen fit well except for the very ends of the slots where the slots got slightly tighter for some reason.  And when I had to switch to chalk for the darker fabrics the chalk broke off on those slightly tighter ends. So, after marking two rows of the quilt and going through chalk like crazy, since it kept breaking, I thought there has to be an easier way.  It's just math. Right? Why not do it on the longarm without marking the quilt beforehand and just figure it out as I go.  So, that's what I did.  I just used my little sewing ruler that I still have from seventh and eighth grade sewing class and started my circle a precise 1/4 inch from the bottom and side of my block and kept using my little ruler to measure (not quilt with) as I went and it worked perfectly!  I didn't need pounce, or hairspray, or marking rulers or markers or chalk or a visit to the doctor for pounce inhalation.  Yay!

I also learned, after doing 250 orange peels how to fudge them to fit perfectly into each square.  Each square was supposed to be 10 inches square but (blame the piecer) each square was slightly different. Some were the magic ten inches and some were 1/8 of an inch or so off. In my defense, when I stitched up the quilt I wasn't being that precise because I knew this would be a practice quilt, so I just zipped through it. Actually, now that it happened I'm kinda glad it did because it made me learn the "art of fudging".  All the "art of fudging" requires is a slight turn of the ruler "here" and a slight turn back "there" but you have to know just where and how in order to keep that next circle on track. When "fudged" the circles get a tiny bit elongated, but not that you can tell.  And if you didn't correct them then the line of stitching for the circle would extend out into that black sashing and show like crazy. When you look at the quilt when it's done your eye just sees perfectly fit in circles.  But if you hadn't fudged and the light color thread was in the black sashing the eye would pick that up right away.  Hence, the "art of fudging" is required.

You know, I often think I want a Q-Matic.  Especially at times like this when it takes forever to do ruler work for 250 orange peels.  But then it hit me, if I had positioned a Q-Matic orange peel computer design into my slightly off squares then the stitching would have gone into the sashing because the Q-Matic doesn't "fudge".  Well, unless you go in and work wonders with the program.  So, I think I'm happy without having Q-Matic.  It makes me become a better quilter because I have to learn how to quilt the things I want and not depend on a computer to do it for me. AND it saved me $13,000.00.

Can you tell it's Christmastime?  I decorated
my longarm! That's Max, the Longarm Elf❣️

I also learned something else with this practice quilt.  Black thread is cRaZy wicked to work with.  It goes along just fine and then, BAM, the machine just doesn't like it.  I looked it up and they say that the problem is that black thread has the most amount of dye in it than any other color thread and gets read differently by the machine.  It also requires a different tension. So, I had to change my bobbin tension each time I switched out to the black thread.  It makes no sense to me because on my regular sewing machine black thread sews just fine, thank you. But on the longarm it would sew for hours just fine and then go all bonky. Even though bonky is not a word, I think bonky describes it. So, I learned a useful lesson for when I use black thread in a quilt that matters.  

This is the second quilt that I've buried my threads in.  I know, I know, it was a practice quilt ... so why on earth did I bother to bury my threads? Well, because I was practicing burying my threads, that's why!  I had used a Spiral Eye needle on the quilt before this (I haven't blogged that quilt yet because it's a present that hasn't been gifted yet.) and I really loved using it. The other self-threading needles I had tried just frustrated me to no end.  With the Spiral Eye the thread wraps right into a slot in the side of the needle and works like a charm. The only problem I had was using it where there were a lot of seams together.  I was using the SE-24C, which is recommended on the Spiral Eye site for burying threads, so, I wrote and asked the inventor of the needle, Pam Turner, if she could recommend a slightly smaller and sharper needle for that.  She suggested her favorite needle, which is the SE-6, so I ordered that. When it came in the mail, Pam had graciously sent me a few other sizes to try out too.  I used the SE-8 for binding the quilt and that worked great.  And I used the SE-6 on the quilt for burying threads and it just slid through every seam.  It's very difficult for me to see to thread a needle, so, I love this product!

The Spiral Eye Needle SE-6 can be
purchased at spiraleyeneedles.com

The only other problem I encountered with this quilt was caused by user error.  I took the quilt off the frame and laid it out to see the back and realized that I had skipped half a square of orange peels. Makes you wonder how that happened, doesn't it?  I did half and then what? Wandered off?  So, I had to put it back on the longarm and fix it.  Yet another valuable lesson learned ... I will go back and check each row or portion of the quilt that I work on from now on to make sure it's all quilted before moving on next time. 

I tried a different batting on this quilt.  I used Quilter's Dream 'Dream Blend' which is 70% cotton and 30% polyester.  Since this was a practice quilt I thought I'd try a different batting in it and see how it washed up.  I had not pre-washed any of my fabric to begin with. The quilt was 57.5" X 57.5" before washing and 56" X 55.5" after washing. Does anyone know why a quilt loses more on one side than the other? There must be a technical reason for it.  

Not quilted versus quilted.

I liked the batting and I'll probably use it again. I try to use batting according to how the quilt will be used and how I want the quilting to look.  If it's a snuggly quilt I'll use Quilter's Dream Orient which drapes like a blanket.  And if I want the quilting to not get all crunched up from washing then I'll use Quilter's Dream polyester and not cotton.  I used the Quilter's Dream cotton once and didn't like the amount of shrinkage.  It was way more then the 1 to 3 percent that they stated on the package and that was with pre-washed fabric.  So, I'm trying out the cotton blends now to see if I like them better.  

I used Isacord thread in four different colors, Midnight, Starfish, Tropicana and some sort of soft blue (the label fell off so I don't know its cutesy name).  I love stitching with Isacord.  It's 40 weight so it shows off the quilting and it pairs well in the bobbin.  Since this was a practice quilt I tried an experiment with the thread.  I used matching bobbin thread instead of just one blendable color for the backing.  So, one row is pink on the back, the next is blue and the next is peach with the sashing done in black.  I wanted to see what that would look like on the backing.  I have to say, as the backing started coming up and over the take up bar I winced and thought to myself, "Good thing this is a practice quilt!"  But actually, when I took it off the frame it looked kinda nice when you saw it in it's entirety.  Of course, the black shows every tiny mistake against the peach backing, but I actually was pretty good at getting all the lines and points to bat up to one another.  I'm not sure I would do it again, using black, but maybe with the softer colors. 

The ruler I used was the tiniest circle from the BERNINA longarm rulers ... 1.5 inches.  I used it for the 250 orange peels and also the design in the sashing.  If I don't use it for awhile, I can't say I'll miss it.  That's one tiny little ruler to hold on to for hours on end.  

The hand painted batik medallions look like snowflakes to me and wouldn't you know it we got a snowstorm as I was quilting this.  It was that heavy, wet, what I call - heart attack, snow.  So, for the first time in over forty years I shoveled snow ❄️ ❄️ ❄️ and then came in and quilted snowflakes.  

Where, oh where, do practice quilts go?  Well, although I like the individual medallions on this quilt, I don't really like the medallions when they are pieced all together.  Honestly, these colors are just not my thing, so, I'm just gonna drop this little practice quilt in the garage.  Our moving blankets from the moving truck that brought us here ten years ago have slowly and magically disappeared so this quilt will get plenty of use as a working blanket out there, under cars, on the grass, things like that.  It will be much appreciated by my husband. 

This little quilt gave me lots of practice.  I can truthfully say I mastered the art of the orange peel 🍊 AND the art of fudging.
Remember to pick up a needle and thread and quilt some love into your world❣️

TINY, TINY QUILTS ❣️

Would you like to know why I haven’t written a new blog in awhile? Well,  I’m currently working on lots of different quilts, and they are all at different stages, but they’re also all gifts so I can’t write about them until I give them away.  Instead, I thought I’d do a blast from the past blog and show you what I did during all those years when I stopped quilting.  See, I didn’t REALLY stop quilting, I just made TINY, TINY quilts.  

For years I made little 8 inch Waldorf dolls stuffed with lamb’s wool with a tiny sachet filled with all sorts of dried flowers tucked inside.  I designed them as little girls, little fairies, little butterflies, little bumblebees and little sparkling mermaids.  I even had a lady hand dye some lambs wool into a beautiful variegated turquoise yarn for the mermaid hair. They had reversible clothing, all hand sewn and tiny, tiny matching quilts.  Some were gifted in little baskets and some in back pack bags quilted to look like sunflowers.  Unfortunately, I only have one picture to show you on here but there’s a very good reason for that.  You see all of my boxes and boxes of photographs are in my upstairs closet and, in order to fit into that room, my new longarm was built right in front of that closet so I can no longer get into it.  Oh well. Someday, I'll move the longarm and get them out to share.

After making dozens of Waldorf dolls I moved on to making doll clothes for Corolle dolls. This started when I bought Bella, who is my great niece and Godbaby, a Corolle Vanilla Doll from France for her third birthday.  These gorgeous little baby dolls smell like vanilla.  Bella is now thirteen and she says her doll still smells like vanilla.  

These beautiful little dolls are smaller than American Girl Dolls and there are no  dress patterns available in their size so I thought how hard can it be to design doll clothes?  Well, it's not exactly easy but I did it. I made all sorts of little outfits each one fitted to the doll and then hand sewn. 

Then I made some matching outfits for Bella.

And then I bought an American Girl Doll chest and made quilted inserts for the lid and for the top tray and a matching quilt for the doll. I also made a little music box pillow and matching outfits for the doll's tiny little bear.  What started out as just the doll for a gift turned into quite the project.  I really had fun doing this though!

I haven't made a doll or doll clothes in years now. Maybe I will again when I have grandchildren.  I hope so!  And maybe, I'll get into my closet again someday and show you some more pictures!  In the meantime, pick up a needle and thread and sew some love into your world❣️

THE QUILTED WOLF 🐺

Why is it that when you want something to be just perfect that's when everything goes wrong?

My great niece is also my Godbaby and she has been in love with horses and wolves for years.  For her Confirmation I wanted to make her a wolf quilt.  Patterns for wolf quilts are few and far between but I finally found one and ordered it from equilter.com They had a widget on there where you could see the pattern and change out the fabrics into the ones you liked.  I picked a gorgeous teal, lavender and purple batik swirl that would highlight the Northern Lights in the wolf panel.  It was so pretty that I also ordered it for the backing.  When it came, however, the fabric was almost all white with just a hint, if even that, of the teal, lavender and purple colors that had been so vibrant onscreen.  I went ahead and used it on the pieced top but ordered something called Grape Jam for the backing.  On the top I used a 100 weight silver thread so that it would blend into all the different colors.  Originally, I would have used silver on the bottom also but now that it was a vivid purple I ordered a matching purple thread.  Big mistake!  On the whitish fabric on the top the bobbin thread came through as little purple points whenever I started my thread.  I quilted the whole top section across the quilt in ruler work and then stippled the circles. Then I decided I hated the purple showing through and ripped it all out.  I won't even tell you how long that took. I should have just stopped after stitching the first circle, but I didn't.  So, then I decided to use the purple thread on the top and didn't like that either.  Do you think I learned my lesson the first time?  No. I should have stopped after I stitched the first purple circle and didn't like it but instead I did the whole top strip again hoping I would change my mind and like it ... and then spent another entire day ripping, ripping and ripping. And then ripping some more.  I finally used white thread in 40 weight on the top and the purple thread on the bottom and it turned out the best of the three options. 

Do YOU see vibrant teal, lavender and purple in that white.
Yeah, me neither!

No matter what I did with this quilt I ran into problems. Everything just seemed to go wrong. This is the first quilt I've had difficulties with and it bothered me because I wanted this to be perfect for my Godbaby.  About two thirds of the way through I decided I was just going to make this a practice quilt and a learning experience and I would simply reorder the panel and start over from scratch.  But when I was finished I sat down to reorder the panel and they no longer had it. Aaaaaggggghhhhhhh!  

The wolf is looking at me!

Here is what I learned ... 

Not everything can or will be perfect. And, sometimes, because I'm old I think I can skip the practice part and jump straight to perfect.  But life doesn't work that way.  It doesn't care if you're young or old you've got to put in the practice.  And, most importantly, I learned that there are actually four layers to a quilt ... not three.

There is, of course, the pieced top, the batting and the backing; those are the three layers that everyone knows about, but there is also a fourth layer.  The fourth layer is where it's all quilted together with love❣️ That fourth layer doesn't care about perfection at all.  While I worked on this quilt I remembered my Godbaby as a baby, as a toddler, as a little girl and now as a beautiful young woman.  All my love for her was stitched into this quilt.  Quite honestly, that's all that's important, right?

Your mistakes in life, and in art, and in all things, make you learn and grow and become stronger, which enables you to make the things you're passionate about turn into things of beauty.  Just remember to always add that "fourth layer" into everything you do ... the one where you add in the love❣️

Here is a video taken in dim lighting in order for the quilting to show up better.  Enjoy!  And make sure and stitch some love into your world!