My new free-motion quilting foot arrived in the mail last week, all metal and (so far) much sturdier. I had Friday off, and took advantage of the time to organize my fabric stash and finish up my Mixtape Quilt, from Elizabeth Hartman’s pattern. I made the “Favorite Songs” style, in its largest size: the lap-quilt of 8″ blocks, which ended up 62″/62″. All posts about it can be seen by clicking the “mixtape quilt” tag on the right sidebar.
I had already quilted about half of it (before my previous free-motion foot broke) and started on it with the previously quilted sides neatly rolled and folded to keep them out of my way. I did my best to keep it all in neat place so that it was smaller, which did make it a little easier to move around, though it was surprisingly heavy.
But by about halfway through today’s quilting, I had given up on keeping the outer edges folded, and only rolled the edge that was under the sewing machine’s arm. I got a little bit better at manipulating the quilt as I went along, and at figuring out where to place my hands while I was moving it — left hand to the back and left of the needle, right hand right and slightly to the front (that is, closer to me), moving in tandem. I think the quilting of it improved a bit by the end. Overall, I’m very proud of it: it’s the first thing I’ve ever free-motion quilted, and it’s the largest quilt I’ve made so far, at 62″x62″. It could be a bit awkward to do something larger than this, because it got difficult to manipulate too closely with half the quilt folded up under the arm of the machine.
Once I’d quilted all of it and trimmed the borders, I machine bound it in one of the fabrics I used in the quilt. It’s a slightly heavier weight than some of the other fabrics, which may stand up to wear and tear a little bit better than a lighter fabric. Since this quilt is going to a 3-year-old boy, durability is definitely a concern.
Once I’d finished it, I tried to take a picture indoors. That was … not entirely successful: I had to hang it up over the railing and take a picture from the stairs. It ended up being a bit of an odd angle:
Thankfully, it was beautiful outside, so I took it out to the back yard, and hung it from the back porch:
It may be feverishly hot outside today, but it made for nice picture-taking.
I’m so pleased to have finished this project, and I can’t wait to see the look on my friend’s face when I give it to her and her son.
Knit-Spin-Quilt 
Love the purple and green together and your fmq looks really great. Good to see the quilt finished after the problems you had with it last week :)
Thanks! The friend I made it for had a lot of fun picking out the fabrics: she’s got an excellent eye. And I didn’t quite believe it was done, at first — it’s very exciting to have it finished! :)
Very impressive for your first time free motion quilting! I love the color choices as well. And I’m with you, outside photos always seem better for quilts. Congrats on the finish :-)
Amanda
Thank you! The quilting process ended up being more forgiving than I expected, which was a relief! And I was so pleased it was nice enough to photograph outdoors: the colors are much truer.
Your FMQ looks pretty good! I did my first machine quilting last week (not FMQ) and had so much fun, I want to try FMQ next. I’m glad to hear it’s a bit forgiving! Your finished quilt looks gorgeous :)
Thank you so much! FMQ isn’t as scary as I thought it was. That said, I’m pretty sure zig-zags are the easiest way to try FMQ for the first time: it’s hard to mess it up, since it’s supposed to look angular and unintentional. Next time I think I’ll try curves.
Good job on the quilting! Finished is always Great!
Thank you! I’m so happy with how it turned out. :)
Your quilting and the finished quilt both look awesome! Great job :)
Thank you so much!
I found you on Lily’s Quilts small blog link party and anyone who mentions the zombie apocalypse in their profile is worth following as far as I’m concerned!
Excellent. I used to have a really good plan for the zombie apocalypse, with a roommate of mine, but then we moved out of our remarkably bunker-like apartment. ;)
Nice finish! I like the photos from your back porch especially.
Thanks. I’m lucky to have somewhere like that to hang them. :)