Sometimes it’s good to break out of a rut, taking a new approach. That’s exactly what I did with this sweet doll quilt. I’m an art quilter who does everything by machine, but I wanted to do something completely different, just for me. So I pieced a lot of points, used pastels, and hand-quilted this quilt. And the fabrics are all from my stash.
I learn from my experiments, and this quilt was a real eye-opener for me. You wouldn’t think such a small piece could teach you so much, but I learned a lot, especially about hand quilting. I came up with my own technique to baste instead of thread basting the way you normally do with hand quilting.
I also pressed my seams open on this quilt, and I was amazed at what a difference in made in my accuracy and how flat the quilt lied. I rarely ever press seams until the entire top is complete because I get too much distortion. These blocks had to be pieced as I went, so I tried the seams open technique, and they were dead-on accurate. The top also lied flatter than any top I ever worked on.
They key to having fun, even in quilting, lies in doing something new.
