Heart Flower and Feathers Wholecloth Quilt!

In the beginning of December 2013, the snow was blowing and I was unable (or unwilling due to the temperature) to spend my time in my usual pursuit of riding my horses. I started thinking about why I had not really gotten to any of the quilting projects I had wanted to do and had already purchased fabric for. I honed in on the answer that I was unmotivated to create the tops I had planned on making because I didn't know how to quilt them. I am a beginner at sewing and quilting and while piecing didn't give me any pause, I was just at a loss on how to really quilt a quilt myself. I didn't really *want* to send them out for quilting, nor could I really afford to. So after some searching around online I came across Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project.

I began voraciously watching her many online tutorials on YouTube and I was hooked. One part of the 2012 Quilt Along I just loved was the Heart Flower and Feathers Wholecloth Quilt. I really wanted to try it out, so after doing a couple of the 2014 Building Blocks Quilt Along that I am participating in right now, I decided to give it a try! It may be the first of a few because I know the first one (or two) won't be perfect and I really love this little quilt and want a nice one to hang on my wall in my sewing room. I am sure going to learn a ton by doing this little wholecloth quilt - I could even keep them unbound and then eventually bind them together to make a table runner. How cute would that be!

Thursday I prewashed and dried my fabrics and ironed and starched them, Friday evening I marked my fabric with the motif and basted it and today I got started quilting it. I've made a couple mistakes on the curves of the hearts, but I don't think they will be too noticeable once I add the micro-stippling filler. I am so thrilled to actually be working on this. The weather has been absolutely frigid here, single digits and sub-zero and looks to stay that way through the middle of the coming week, so I will have plenty of time to work on it!!

Here is a photo of it marked and basted and another two of it after I quilted the center heart flower and overlapping square rings. Not too shabby!! The splotches, like in the center indent of one of the hearts is from my marking pen when it was going over top of the scotch tape I used to put together the four pieces of paper that make up the entire motif. It should come out with water.