I love almost every aspect of quilting. You often hear of quilters who have trouble choosing fabrics to go together (note I said “choosing” not “buying” – we don’t seem to have trouble with that part!), but that isn’t difficult for me. I enjoy designing quilts, sometimes to the detriment of actually making them. I hope it doesn’t get worse when EQ7 arrives! Cutting fabric, while not particularly fun, isn’t difficult because I have great tools. I use an Alto’s Quilt Cut system that allows me to cut a lot of fabric at a time, and my Martelli Ergo 2000 Rotary Cutter (left handed, thank you!) means that I don’t have a sore wrist or shoulder.

Piecing is a favorite – wonderfully soothing in the repetition. I admit, I’m not fond of adding borders, but only because I’m so close to being finished, and they’re kind of boring. I’m working toward either piecing my borders or eliminating them altogether on most quilts. Regardless, I never add just one border because I think it looks like an afterthought with the sole purpose of making the quilt bigger. I enjoy free motion quilting allover designs using my Little Gracie II frame. I even like the process of putting on binding. I sew a folded binding strip to the front of the quilt, then fold it over and hand stitch it to the back. I admit, my mom usually finishes the binding for me (she likes it, I swear!), but even when I do it myself, I enjoy the stillness of it, and the weight of the quilt on my lap.

So, my quandary? Well, I enjoy making mini quilts, and am nearly done with my mini for the Modify Tradition swap. But I can’t figure out how to quilt it. It has dimensional flying geese, and I don’t want to flatten them so the effect is lost. I will probably do it on my regular machine instead of the frame, and I can’t “think” free motion designs when I have to move the fabric instead of the machine. Straight lines stitching works, but again, I don’t want to flatten the geese, so it can’t be just straight lines across the whole thing. Grrr…

I finally decided to do straight lines 1/8″ inside the seams of the flying geese rows, then make continuous line concentric boxes in the setting squares. I don’t know if that was the best decision, but it’s the one I’m going with. I’ll post pictures after the quilt is received – I don’t think she reads this blog, but just in case…

By the way – my swap partner lives within half an hour of me! If I didn’t think it would be considered stalker-ish, wouldn’t it be fun to hand deliver the quilt?