Not every quilt needs to be a masterpiece

When I sit down to quilt, I feel all the promise and expectation of the future finished quilt. I hope to love the quilt when it's completed, and I wonder if this quilt will be the one that's finally good enough to put in a juried show. At the same time, I don't have any interest in submitting a quilt to such a show. Guild shows where whatever I submit will be accepted is all I want right now.

The quilt below was a big experiment for me both in color and design. I usually make quilts in lower-contrast autumn tones with not much negative space. This quilt started out as a gift for my yoga teacher who likes bright colors. It turns out I don't have many brights in my fabric stash. But I did have enough to make a few small wallhangings. I didn't like my first attempt so I cut the pieces even smaller and look what happened!

Not a Masterpiece

I love this quilt, especially the machine quilt patterns I chose, but it is crooked and wonky and since posting this picture I have decided to take the binding off the top and make it a bit straighter. The small pieces in the center are 1/2" finished and the quilt itself is about 13". 

The best part of this quilt is that it was so much fun to make because I didn't have any expectations about it being fabulous when I was finished because I thought I wouldn't like it at all. I used up fabric I would otherwise have thrown out and I also learned a few things, like not to be lazy and leave the bright yellow thread in my machine when piecing white fabric because it does show close up in some seams, and that reds really can run even if they've been pre-washed.

Looking forward to sharing my next quilting experiment.