It took months longer than I expected, but this scrappy quilt-as-you-go project is finally done.
I used a lot of orphan blocks and scrappy leftovers from other quilts in order to practice a new-to-me technique of quilt as you go, which does not require extra joining strips. With a bit of tweaking, it turned out to be a technique I can see myself doing a lot more of. I used a lot of smaller pieces of batting as well, which is always a bonus with QAYG.
One of the big issues for me was that I started the quilt on my Singer 401, but honestly, that machine and I were just not compatible. The bobbin winder was unreliable, even after I took it to a sewing machine mechanic. I was constantly troubleshooting. I bought a stand-alone bobbin winder, and new bobbins, but it was always slowing me down. The project only went ahead after I swapped back to Nina the 306 Singer.
I have let the 401 go. I had spent money on it, but it was just not the machine for me.
Here is a picture of the quilt on my bed, taken from above. It is a single bed sized quilt and I will take it along to the WAQA community quilters soon, so that it can go to a shelter or other welfare service to keep someone warm this winter.
The centre medallion has a lot of quilting in tightly spaced rows, but I spread the quilting a bit further towards the edge as I wanted it to drape on a single bed.
The binding strips were made from a doona cover I found in an op shop, which had all the right colours to bring this rather chaotic quilt together. I love a binding which has stripes, spots and flowers.
Now that the quilt is done, I am taking the opportunity to tidy and dust the sewing room ready for the next project. I have some ideas in mind, and I hope it will go smoothly!
