My first ever quilt!

Well, I've done it!  It's taken me a few weeks and a sore finger but I have finished my first quilt.  I found this pattern in Sew Hip magazine, issue 15.  I fancied trying something different and I thought a quilt was a good challenge for me.  As I wasn't entirely conifdent i my ability to get this one done well I thought I would do something to go in our spare room, so I picked a couple of fabric bundles from Fabric Rehab that included greens and yellows and got going.

Lot's of measuring, lots of cutting ... I got a bit confused over how to pin the circle quarters to the background fabric on each quarter, but got there eventually.  My measuring obviously wasn't spot on as there was quite a bit on wonkyness in this. I got the main front of the quilt done a while back:

I then stalled for quite a while as it was the next bit I was nervous about - actually quilting the damn thing. I got some lovely green backing fabric and some batting and eventually got going.  It didn't work out for a while as there seemed to be an issue with tension on my sewig machine  I spent ages testing on scraps and trying to get it right.  In the end I worked out that there was an issue with my bobbin - once I swapped bobbins it was all good.

Well, I say all good, but this project has shown that I don't have complete control over my sewing machine - my straight lines aren't exactly straight!  I quilted along both sides of the main seams across.  Also, in areas of extreme wonkyness I had to add in extra fabric to square it off.

Interestingly, I quite enjoyed making my binding.  I got a thin quarter of yellow fabric and sewed strips together with a diagonal seam.  Sewing the binding fabric onto the front of the quilt with the machine was a joy ... hand sewing it onto the back was not so fun.  I think I see the purpose of a thimble now!

But it's done. And I think it looks fab.

The colours are perfect for my spare room - we've got a green sofa bed from Ikea in there and a print of my favourite painting, Surprise! by Henri Rousseau, which has a lot of green and yellow in it.  One day, I plan to paint the room yellow!