Practice, practice

When learning new things there is nothing to do but practice, as much as it pains me to admit it, it is indeed the truth.  None of us, or very few of us at least, are good at anything in the first go.  It takes a certain amount of persistence to keep going until you consider yourself at least competent at whatever it is you are trying to learn, and a good bit more to become proficient.

I consider myself reasonably proficient at knitting, but quilting I'm still working on.  I have been meaning to learn free motion quilting for quite some time, I finally picked up the right foot last weekend and I set out today to see if I could make that happen.

So, I did like the book said, and did a 'sampler'.

Certainly not great work, but enough for me to get the general idea.  I finished piecing a wall hanging this weekend, so I decided to dive right in.  Stippling, a sort of meandering stitch, seemed like the easiest thing to start with, so off I went.  I did okay.

On the right you can see where I tried the small, tighter stippling and did that half in separate squares, that was the first half, then I did the piece on the left, then I did the little loop-d-loops on the outside and sashing.  

I still have to put the binding on, but I ran out of steam to do that this weekend.  I was so obsessed with sewing that I didn't knit at all this weekend, so I think it's time to sit down and do that.

All in all I am relatively pleased with my first attempt at free motion quilting.

Something else that required a bit of practice this weekend:

We went on a segway tour of Philadelphia, one of those things we got for half price on groupon, it was quite cold for the tour (30s), my knitwear came in handy and even still my toes felt like little icecubes by the end of the tour.  They spent a good 30 minutes teaching us how to use them before we started on the tour, thank goodness for that.  Once I had the hang of it and we were on our way it was insanely fun, I would absolutely recommend it if you ever have the opportunity!  

I have this quilt ready to be quilted, but I am leery about moving from a wall hanging to this giant thing, maybe I'll work on on a friend's baby quilt next, that seems like it would be a good inbetween step before I get to this one.

Sorry, it's a little blurry, I just can't tell that they're blurry on my phone until it's too late.

Something completely random, cinnamon bun french toast!  It's just like regular french toast, except you use cinnamon buns sliced in half so they are the thickness of thick bread.  YUM.  

Comments

[Heather]

Well Done You! (on the quilting AND the Segway-ing)

Your quilting efforts are brave and as someone who hasn't gotten up the courage yet, I am in awe. :D

[Connie]

Keep at it. You will be surprised at how fast you can get good at machine quilting. I actually find it relaxing now. The wall hanging looks great.

[Jocelyn]

Wow! That quilting looks really good - I am SO impressed. Keep up the "practice" :) And the segway tour looks like a blast! Someday I've got to try one of those things...

[Julia]

Wow, the machine quilting looks great! I might be a convert, if I ever get that quilt out again and get the piecing finished. Yours are lovely!
And I'm a fan of segways, too. First time a few months ago (age 61), I was very proud of myself and had a great time! Very independent feeling, me thinks.
thanks for sharing!