Thursday, August 12, 2010

Quilting renegade

Tonight I had a hard time deciding what to work on. I finally decided to quilt up my mystery #15 table topper....for 2 reasons. First, I love how this turned out and I have just the table in my kitchen that this will look perfect on and second, I needed a fast finish to get my finishes up to 3 so I would only have a few more to get done to complete my self imposed restriction. You know..finish 5 ufo's before you can start anything new.

I also wanted to try doing something different with the fmq, so again, this would be perfect. Scrappy enough to hide the booboos, and staying here in my home, so I decided to try swirls. Now, I know you ladies do AMAZING things with your quilting, but you have to remember, I am a newby at this! I just started fmq last year and have lots to learn.

So, off I went making the most awful swirlies on this table topper. And you know what??? I had the BEST time and the MOST FUN I have had sewing in ages!! Why do we make it all about how fast it gets done..or how many get done...or we have to bust our stash?? Personally, I am DONE WITH THAT!!!! I had forgotten WHY I do this..to learn more, to have fun..not to keep quotas! From now on, I will sew what I am in the mood to sew on....new project? GREAT! finish an old ufo? GREAT! make awful swirlies all over something!! EVEN BETTER because my confidence grew hugely as I did it..and I LAUGHED over how awful some of them were..and I will now cherish this table topper as the valuable teaching tool it is. Everytime I see a distorted swirlie, I will remember this night...the night I remembered how to have fun.

So..here is my awful swirlie, beautiful table topper:



AND..I am guilty of even worse things with this table topper. I used this:



...an old fleece as my batting! This was one of those adorable, yet wayyyy too small fleece blankets to ever be of much use. I have to say, I LOVED quilting on it. I am sure there are reasons I shouldn't use it, but for tonight, please don't tell me. I feel like a total quilt renegade..bad swirlies, no more "gotta get it done" lists and inappropriate batting. I tell ya, life doesn't get any better than this!

Reenie..off to sew the binding on this one and to relish my quilting bad a** reputation I am going to have NOW! lol

7 comments:

  1. Hey, I like the swirls....I'm going to work on stippling next week, hopefully! Don't beat yourself up...and I agree with working on whatever makes you happy that day! Enjoy yourself ;-)

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  2. I agree with you Reenie. The swirls look terrible and you should have never used fleece. Send it to my house and I'll give it a good home, okay? lol Seriously now, I enlarged the picture and looked at those swirls and they look great to me. The colors in that little table topper are gorgeous.

    I plan on using fleece for the inside of a flannel lap quilt I'm starting. I have it on hand, it's light weight and will wash up nice. Guess I'm a renegade too.

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  3. I love it. Yay!! on your saying "NO" to regimented ways. You were starting to scare me....lol just kidding. YOURE BACK.... love the swirls. They turned out great. Thumbs up on the confidence boost and on the fun!!! I love it!! Love your music selections also... a gal after my own heart.

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  4. Nothing wrong with being a renegade! I think it looks GREAT. and who says you can use fleece as the "batting"? I have used old blankets,and such.forget the rules... well,not all of them. and have fun.

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  5. Good for you. I sometimes think that for some quilting has become how quickly they can finish things and how much more they can do than others. There's no enjoyment in competing all the time.
    I quilt because I enjoy it and to hang with everyone else.
    What's so terrrible about using the blanket as batting. In the old Welsh quilts the batting was always a big old blanket. You are just being ultra traditional.

    Love and hugs Gina xxx

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  6. I love the swirls and your new "free" spirit.It's so much fun to just go with the flow.

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