2011 Summary Quilt

I decided to make a wall hanging for my quilting room with a block for each quilt I made during my first year of quilting.  It was fun to make something small for a change and it gave me a chance to practice some techniques.  I still have a long way to go on just about all aspects of quilting.  First some pictures (from the person who isn't a picture taker!)

Each block represents one of the quilts I completed in 2011.  There is also fabric from the table runner I made for son #1.  The label at the bottom says, "The quilts of 2011".  I'm going to hang it on my wall as soon as I get some of these cool hangers recommended by Leah Day.
Leah has been my inspiration to try free motion quilting and I used this piece as my first attempt at stippling.  In general I was pleased with the result, although if I could do it again I would have used a different color thread.  I'm not sure what color, perhaps the blue/green variegated thread I used on the 3D quilt.  I also would have made the stitch that holds the binding on narrower.  I wanted more practice putting the binding on this way and I can tell that I need to work on turning the corners.  The stippling was easier than I anticipated.  I had some trouble going over the non-traditional fabrics in the quilt - the knits from the tee-shirt quilt and the fabric from the cuddle quilt.  It was a lot of fun.  And the more you relax, the easier it is.  I forgot to put my stitch length to 0 as recommended but actually I think on my machine keeping the stitch length on the standard setting gave me slightly better stitches.

I actually did a form of free motion quilting on the 3D quilt trying to make a seaweed like design and ocean waves.  I like the result on this piece better.  I have another quilt top ready to baste and quilt and it will at least in part have stippling.  I will need to adjust my sewing tables to handle the weight of a large quilt better.  I noticed that when this piece was mostly hanging to the back of the machine it became difficult to manage the fabric and that would be even more pronounced in a large quilt.

My quilt list for this year has eight quilts on it!  I'm not sure I'll get those all done but I don't have to worry about running out of ideas for awhile.