Patience pays off.

Hello dear friends!
My fabric arrived a couple days ago,
and I have hit the ground running with quilting it!
Speaking of the fabric,
if you would like to follow along and do your own quilt-a-month along with me,
You can purchase those fabrics
designed by yours truly,
in advance.
I have already added January’s design to my shop,
and February’s will be ready to order
in just a couple days.
Check out my store here or click on the “shop” button at the top of my blog.
(I will also be adding other little goodies to the shop here and there.)
It would be awesome if a bunch of us all took the same panel and did different things with it!
If you do, please please please post some pictures so we can all see!
So, back to the main point,
patience.
It pays off.
I am sure we have all had our own set of trials, especially starting a new year.
We hope for things, and waiting seems to be the hardest part.
What I want to say today
is this:
DON’T GIVE UP!
Don’t let the time it takes to achieve something great
stop you from achieving something great.
When it comes down to it,
all amazing things in this life take time.
Getting a college education.
Welcoming a child into the world.
Planting a garden.
Making a quilt.
Finishing a quilt.
Landing that perfect job.
Finding that perfect someone.
Just don’t lose sight.
I can’t say it enough.
All the greatest things I have seen
have not happened over night.
___________________________________
Onto the quilty side of things…
Without further adieu…
Here is January’s design.
I love this quote.
Sometimes it is easy to get down in the dumps
and be self-critical of the things we do,
the way we do them,
and the amount of time it takes to do them.
If this sounds like you,
take a deep breath.
Relax.
You will get there.
I really hit the ground running with this quilt. And it really has been a lot of fun.
If you have bought this fabric with the intent to make a wall-hanging/decorative quilt, but you are not sure where to start, let me show you what I did.
First, I started by choosing my backing/batting, laying it out nice and flat, and basting my edges.
(Basting is a fancy term for safety pins, in my book.)
Next, I knew that basting just the edges was not going to stabilize it enough. So, I decided to use my neutral thread color, and start tracing some of the main lines. This is a really smart way to make sure your fabric will lay nice and flat before you start getting into the detailed work and tighter stitching.
After that, I decided it would be a good idea to start outlining the letters, this way it would not only be easier to quilt around them later, but to continue reinforcing that my quilt will lay nice and flat.
I skipped around, doing different letters in different spots. This way, my quilt wouldn’t get too tight too quickly in any one area.
Finally, I outlined the rest of the letters.
I also spent some time with my mossy forest green thread and followed some of the blades of grass.
This will also be more detailed later, but again,
doing it for stability.
I have found that a good rule of thumb,
especially when quilting as tightly as I plan to
on this particular quilt,
is to use what I like to call the
“Skip-around” technique.
This means that as you start quilting all the elements, you try to stay focused on the quilt as a whole, and not focusing too much attention on any given area too quickly.
In this case, I am just sooooo friggin’ stoked to do the quilting on the snail’s shell!
But, I know that if I quilt all of that and not focus any attention on the other areas of the quilt,
I promise you the quilt will not lay nice and flat, and will wrinkle and pucker like nobody’s business.
How is that for a patience test!?
Wowie.
So, instead of going all out with the metallic threads
(like I plan to so later)
I just started following every few lines, laying down the initial lines that will be filled in and followed later.
For this part of the quilt, I used my yellow/goldenrod variegated thread.
Notice that little tiny wave in the fabric?
(In the top left-hand corner)
If you quilt too tightly too quickly,
THIS WILL BECOME YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE.
Does it sound like I am speaking from experience?
Because I am.
Haha.
Well, you are probably bored by now reading this…
if you are still reading.
Anyway,
I am trying to be more patient, and happy about it.
I hope you are too.
Have a good one.
More to come later.
Be great to each other.
-Karlee