quilted // slow and steady wins the race

I'm so happy to be writing this post!  The sun is shining, and my first ever quilt is finished!

Last Christmas, I gathered up what scraps of fabric I could find and cut them into 2" strips to make a a Jelly Roll Race quilt.  I was really inspired by all the tutorials on youtube, and figured it was a good pattern for a beginner.  Ready cut jelly rolls usually come in 2.5" wide strips, but I wanted my stripes to be on the thinner side and cutting at 2" really made the most of every little bit of fabric.

The fabric is a mixture of dots and florals.  A lot of it is pretty low-quality cotton which I bought cheaply when I first got my sewing machine.  Because this was just a practice first project, it didn't matter if things weren't perfect.

The piecing went pretty fast (not quite the "one hour" that youtube promised!) but then life got in the way and the project was put on hold for a while.  The actual quilting part was pretty tricky with just a normal machine and limited space, and wasn't as enjoyable as the piecing had been.  For my next project I'll definitely invest in a walking foot.  I also discovered that rolling the quilt and then holding it in place with masking tape helped distribute some of the weight.

Slowly, slowly over the past few months I worked my way through the quilting.  I used a combination of a diamond pattern in the centre of the quilt and wavy lines in the border.  I really like how the contrast turned out.  Yesterday I finished stitching the border and added the binding using this excellent tutorial for mitred corners.

All-in-all this was a fantastic first quilting project.  It's far from perfect, but I learned loads of new skills, and know things to avoid in my next project.  Plus I now have a super cosy and comfortable new blanket which is perfect for sleeping under in the hot weather!

I think it's safe to say that I've caught the quilting bug - I already have a stack of fabric set aside for my next project and I can't wait to get started!