I love this journey of discovery I’m on with quilting!!  Over the past two years, since I’ve become more productive, although still not nearly as productive as I’d like, I’ve learned so much about the process of creating a quilt.  I’ve discovered what style I gravatate to, what design elements speak to me and what I think is best to leave for other quilters to try.  While I am certain that I am drawn to the “less is more” philosophy of design, I must admit that there are color combos and quilt designs that, while they don’t fall into that category,  intrigue me so that I simply feel I must try out for myself.

This Little Lotta Chevron Quilt was one of those for me.  While the color combination is pretty standard for me, the design is not!

I had quite a challenging experience with this quilt, as you can see here and here.

I held out hope that the quilting and binding would pull it all together.  I also decided a good dose of, letting go of the idea of perfection, was a splendid idea!

I loved that I learned about HSTs and how certain methods will give you a bias edge which makes them stretchy and harder to match points, how spray starch can help with this problem, pressing your seams open is good, etc, and so on….. Thanks to many quilty pals for those tidbits of knowledge- especially Irelle whose immense knowledge of all things quilty, is astounding!

My most valuable lesson however has been that trying out a new technique and stepping out of my comfort zone is ALWAYS a good thing, whether I get an amazing, show stopping quilt out of it or not!  It’s really the experience of trying, stumbling a bit, but then getting back up and learning to look from a different angle, that is important on my creative path.

In the end, I’m so very happy with the way it turned out- quirky little imperfections and all……

They almost always look better to me after a good wash and dry to give it that fresh and fabulous quilty crinkle!

I joined up with Sew Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations; some fun stuff to check out over there!

Wishing you an inspired week!

~~~karen

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