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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The Slow Road

     I just keep thinking-oh silly me. Normal people start small and then when they feel comfortable in a skill, they move on to a larger project. Nope. Not me. I just plunge right in and hope for the best.  I am way too impatient to wait until my skills improve. ( Can you see where this is going?) So, it is sink or swim.

     I think I have used free motion quilting to finish a piece to or three times.  Prior to this, I have practiced for a big total of maybe 20 hours and that is a generous estimate. So I am not sure how I came up with the grand idea of " Let's go ahead and do a large piece to REALLY get some hours in.

      As I was basting this beast, I was starting to worry about my decision. Did I stop to reconsider? Nope.  Sat down without a clue of how to decide on a design and decided that each section would be a different marking. (Yes, getting crazier by the minute). With the help of  a book by Leah Day , I just took random patterns and started sketching away changing as my abilities allowed. The first few sections were painstakenly slow and my shoulders were killing me after a few hours. I was not liking my choice at all. It was big and hard to move under the machine with any accuracy. I was making a  nasty mess of my beautiful quilt- skipped stitches, lousy tension and areas I needed to rip out. I just wanted to quit.

     The next day, I decided that the basement needed purging. Now, it has been on the long to-do list for about 6 months. I purged the basement and made two trips to Goodwill. I woke up and realized I was finding basement cleaning more exciting than free motion machine quilting. I gave myself a "F" for perseverance and an "F" for attitude.

    I started again. I tucked away my perfectionistic tendencies and moved forward.  Many hours later, I can finally say that I am making slow and steady progress.



Stay tuned and I'll let you know when I make it to the 50% done mark. 

7 comments:

  1. It can be tough to face a large piece to fill...it looks wonderful in the pic!

    Terri






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  2. Colleen, from what I can see it looks great! Those big quilts are beasts to quilt.

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  3. Thanks for the encouragement Terri.

    Heather- yes, beast is a good word for it!

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  4. You have such a great attitude! And the quilt looks great!

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  5. I think it look fabulous!! We are always our worse critics!!

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  6. I cannot express to you how familiar this sounds to me. So far so very good! Don't let it discourage or intimidate you. My suggestion - hang in there and complete it. Once it is bound and hanging on the wall, it will be fantastic. You will so proud and just think of how many more hours you can add to your free motion quilting time totals :-). It will turn out far better than you think!!!!

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  7. I must hand it to you for jumping right into a big beast like that.You're fearless! You've a wonderful beginning and will end up with a beauty.

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