Superstar

How long has it been since I had a quilt finish here? Many moons, that's for sure. Well this is my new baby, "Superstar" that I designed for Modern Quilts Unlimited magazine. The pattern for this 66" x 66" quilt is in their most recent issue. It has two things I love: improvisational piecing and novel (to me at least) construction.

I made the pattern so there are no Y-seams. Not because I avoid Y-seams, but because I know some of my fellow quilters won't even consider them. So I figured out a method that worked without them. It was fun!

And of course I quilted it like a maniac. Also in the magazine is an article I wrote called "The Five Distinct Skills of Free-Motion Quilting". All well and good, but then I saw this (below) on the cover of the issue and just wanted to cry. 

I would really love people to stop using the word "perfect" with the phrase "free-motion quilting". And I would extra love if that could not happen, say, to the things that I wrote! Less perfection and more snuggling quilts please. Less perfection and more people creating with joy and self acceptance. 

And in the interest of joy, here is a photo of some of my latest FMQ, a sample for my class "Wild Quilting" that I am teaching locally and will also be doing at QuiltCon. I've been really impressed at how well my students have done in this class, even ones pretty new to FMQ. It's really fun to quilt this way and every class I hear my students tell me "this is fun!" and I truly love hearing that.

Hoping you are getting some quilting fun lately! I'm going to be a part of Sam Hunter's Back to School Blog Hop so I'll be back soon with a tutorial on joining quilted pieces by machine. Looking forward to showing you my method!