"Bloomin' Nines"

Here it is!

Just in time for Easter!

All finished!

I did some close swirls and circular type things on this one. I knew I had some issues in the border area and wanted to quilt this one heavily so that I could get it to lie flat. I know, the border is my own fault, but the problem existed nonetheless. I measured carefully and put it on just as the pattern called for - mostly out of my own stubbornness and trying to get myself to make things the sizes they are supposed to be. I should have measured through the middle before adding the borders, but instead I just used what the program, Electric Quilt told me to. Sigh.

Anyway, I did manage to do a decent job. By quilting heavily along the borders - well, everywhere, actually, It lies pretty flat! Pretty happy about that!

I also know that while I’m not ecstatic about my quilting in general, when I finish with every quilt that I make using this quilting design, I’m happy with it.

I also am finding it ever so much easier to do.

I actually found myself enjoying the quilting part - which is saying something for me since it’s not my favorite thing to do. I do love a finished quilt and like the texture that is created with all the quilting. This is one aspect of quilting that is really growing on me.

I know I’ll never be a super talented quilter - as I neither have the artistic ability nor the desire - or rather the desire to spend the concentrated time it would take for me- , actually, to be a long arm quilter whose items are entered into shows, etc, I do want to get good enough so that every time I sit down to quilt a quilt, I don’t start with my heart in my throat. I’d like to continue to improve my actual quilting skills obviously. I’m about ready to call this one “good enough” and work on some other things - maybe feathers or feathers in a sort of circle. I found those difficult.

As I’ve mentioned before, though, I seem to be particularly slow at acquiring this skill.

(This is actually probably a good thing, however, as they say people who struggle with a certain area tend to be more compassionate towards others who struggle with their certain areas. If you are the kind of person who never has difficulty in doing things, you can’t relate to those who do.)

But I have plenty of tops to practice on, and appreciative recipients, so I guess I shouldn’t worry about it as long as I keep making progress!

Here you can see the fabrics that went into the “lights” of the HST. And the size of the little cornerstone block.

Since I was using actual premade pieces for the HST, I literally “used what I had” and didn’t make any “new ones” for this top. Well, wait…I did make the little cornerstone ones - I used paper for those, as they finish at 1” in the quilt, so they are pretty small!

I think one of the fascinating things about this particular quilt is the variety of colors and pieces I used in the half square triangles.

There they are for your viewing pleasure. Hope you can see the differences in the shading of fabrics I used:

The pattern is finished and is on the free patterns page. Yes. I am making you go look for it! Maybe you’ll see something else you like while you are there!

And the quilt roll!

This is what it looked like when the sun was shining through the back. I thought it was pretty cool, actually, but just not the picture I wanted for the pattern front!

And that’s one of the things I’ve been up to lately from here in Poland!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

I’m posting this on “Good Friday” - in Poland it’s “Great Friday” - the day most of the Christian western world remembers the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. I trust it’s a wonderful day for you!

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Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!

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