Melanie is a fabulous quilter. She understands color, fabrics, threads, design, is a great teacher, and so much more. I am impressed with her creativity and beautiful quilts. You can see her works here.
Quilting the finished front to the back with the batting sandwiched between is a study in patience and concentration. I wondered what it was like to actually run the machine. She set up a narrow strip of muslin and batting, gave me some instruction, and turned me loose.
I now have a much deeper appreciation for her skills. Some things are ‘easy’ like straight lines. She does curves, animals, flowers, leaves, and designs. Hers look realistic and artistic. Mine not so much. I need more practice.
My quilt could be made into a table runner or cut into placemats. It could even hang on the wall as a piece of modern art. I’ve heard quilters can sometimes sell their works. I would part with this one for a thousand or so. Let me know if you’re interested. 🙂
Our View From Iowa 
The tried and true approach to beginning a new year is to resolve to learn a new thing or practice improving an existing interest. You earn points for trying the new [and for humor in the sales offer] but my observation is that your time probably will be best spent on an existing interest. [Tee hee!]
I think your observation is very astute. Thank you. 🙂
Good for you! Melanie really is a hard act to follow. 😉
That is so true.
Reblogged this on Catbird Quilt Studio and commented:
My sweet Jim wrote this post. Take a look. 🙂
Considering it was a first, the results are really quite accomplished! My question, though, is: do you now understand the compulsion quilters feel, the urge to create in cloth?
Good question. I think I understand it to some degree since I’m compelled to do my own creative things in other area. ‘Creating in cloth’ doesn’t hold that appeal for me, tho.
Straight lines really are not easy. You have a steady hand.
The rolling encoder wheels make it hard to do diagonals. Practice, lots of it, would help.
I think I will pass. But you definitely should keep practicing! You just may have a new hobby. 🙂
The price might drop one day. 🙂
😊
That quilt might make you famous someday!
I don’t even have a sewing machine let alone anything to do quilting! What you’ve done looks very good if it’s the first time you’ve done it. My only experience of any sort of quilting was doing it by hand, when I was a child, with cardboard templates – mostly hexagons. I believe they’re called millefiori quilts.
He took to it easily. Jim helps me with my quilting in a variety of ways. Looks like now I’ll have to get his help at the quilting machine, too! I haven’t made any hexagon quilts, but they are quite popular these days. Thanks for taking a look.
It’s very cool Jim. I’d love to see a physics design~wouldn’t that be neat? I can imagine all sorts of wonderful projects.