Sand Castles

So, my friends know that although I've been making quilts for over 30 years, I don't do the quilting part. Here's my quilting history. The first quilt I ever made, I hand-pieced and hand-quilted because I believed that I should understand how it was done before machines took over. I hand-quilted one other wall hanging, and then I was done.

I made a few quilts for my kids back in the day and machine quilted them...stitch in the ditch, simple straight lines, nothing more.

Then I discovered long-arm quilters. What a relief! Now I could do what I love the most...piece quilt tops. Well, I got to a certain point where I was cranking out more tops than I could afford to send out to be quilted, so I was in a bind. At the coaxing of a friend, about a year ago I started quilting my own very small pieces...small wall hangings. I've wrestled with wanting to learn free motion quilting, even took a class, but have never practiced enough to feel comfortable with it.

In July, I decided to make the Toes in the Sand quilt designed by Jaybird Quilts. I thought to myself...Ok, this is it. You're going to quilt this one. I figured that I could handle one strip at a time. I searched YouTube for "quilt as you go without sashing" and found lots of videos to show me the way and off I went.

A month later, I was finished and it's currently hanging in 

Cloth and Bobbin...

which now has an online shop. 

Check it out HERE! 

I made so many mistakes, but I love it anyway. I was initially fascinated with the idea of a pieced triangular block. I went with pastel-ish batiks on a sand colored background and named the quilt, "Sand Castles."

No free motion here. I sat and did a ton of needle down, presser foot up, and turn.....ad nauseam.

Will I ever do this again? Who knows. I'm closer to my goal of quilting my own work than I was several months ago...so I'll take it and be happy!

By the way, this was a very fun quilt to construct. You should try it!