Nichole's Birthday Quilt

This week I gave a birthday quilt to my good friend, Nichole.  The pattern is a Moda Bake Shop beauty called Picnic, and I used the Charlevoix fabric line by Moda.  I love the bright and cheerful prints on these fabrics.  Something about them reminds me of a county fair.

I was thinking along the county fair lines when I chose this banner design to embroider on the back. It just seemed to fit for a birthday quilt.

The verse for this quilt is Psalm 5:11

I did some straight line quilting to try to accentuate the graphic design of the pattern.  It didn't go entirely well for me, and my straight line quilting may more aptly be described as "wavy line quilting".  It was a learning experience, for sure.  However, one of my main motives for wanting to try it was getting to play with the accu-feed feature on my new sewing machine for the first time.  It was a dream!  The walking foot on my old machine was good, but very loud and "clunky".  The accu-feed system is smooth as silk, and I'm anxious to play with it some more.  I still need to figure out how to properly distribute the weight of a large quilt while I work so that I don't tug on the fabric, especially when I'm turning corners while quilting rectangular shapes.  That is where I struggled with the most distortion.

I mainly use free motion quilting, so the straight line endeavor is a new challenge for me, but I'm now determined to do some more of it soon to get some more practice.  (Any good tips out there?)

I used a scrappy binding, another first for me, utilizing left over jelly roll strips.  I thought it was a fun finish on this project!

I think Nichole really liked her present, and I hope she has as much fun using it as I did making it!