This quilt has been a long time in the making. I first shared a tutorial on this quilt top in May 2016. After that, I created a quilt back on the fly. It was not planned out, I just improvised as I created it. I used fat quarters and scraps to make it. It was lot of fun. At one point, I went to my sister’s house to quilt a different quilt that I had to get finished (via longarm). I didn’t have time to quilt both quilts. Instead, I attached the star quilt to the longarm frame and basted it quickly using an extra long stitch. I decided that I would FMQ (free motion quilt) it on my domestic machine later at home, hoping that if I basted the quilt I would avoid bunching and puckering errors on my quilt back. This had been a common frustration of mine when I quilted on my domestic machine.
It stayed in this tacked/basted state for way too long. I was overwhelmed with the thought of quilting it myself. I took a class from Quilt Basket, my LQS (local quilt shop), with Cathy as my teacher. It was a great experience, I quilted three quilts after that class. I was pleased with how they turned out. However, I still had no desire to quilt this yellow star quilt. It had become my kryptonite. My cat, Pablo, decided it was her quilt. Making me put it away because if it was out, she was all over it.
Fast forward to 2018, post class with Christina Cameli at QuiltCon (Free Motion Textures B), and I am like yes, I can quilt a quilt with two different textures on my domestic machine. Pa-Pow!! I can’t lie, there are so many mistakes and I see how bad it looks, but this is a win for me. I stepped out of my comfort zone. This UFO is finished and will make a wonderful gift for my aunt. The best part is I got a lot of FMQ practice in. The only way that I can get better is with practice. I have soooo much more practice to do and I am excited about doing it.
Get the Tutorial
Check out the tutorial on making this quilt top. I have made some edits and added some info. If you do make it, be sure to share it on Instagram using the hashtag #brownbirddesignscreations to enter into a quarterly giveaway.
