Mom's scrappy donation quilt

This weekend, there was a baby shower for one of my nieces, so I was able to deliver my mom's scrappy donation quilt.  My mom is giving me all her donation quilts to quilt, so that I can continue to practice on my longarm quilting machine.  There is such a large learning curve.  I am comfortable with certain motifs and with every quilt I do, I try new things.

On this practice quilt, everything I quilted was new.  By the time I finished the quilt, I could see the difference between the first design to the last.  They were not horrible or anything, but I still do need practice.  This first picture was of the hourglass unit.  I did a double loop, where I practiced getting them consistent in size and stopping slightly short in the centre, with the point on the first loop, to avoid a large bulk of thread in the centre.  I moved right into a ribbon type swirl, before repeating.

This picture may be difficult to make out, but they were basically all about the same.  When you quilt scrappy quilts, the quilting generally disappears.  One thread colour but many fabric colours.  When you practice though, that is the best part, as no one notices how bad of a job you did.  If you really look you can make it out, but otherwise it goes unnoticed.

The second unit was five strips sewn together, so I did a different stitch design for each of the five strips.  The first strip was small written "e" loops, second was a zigzag, third was ribbon candy (looks similar to a figure 8), fourth was square mazes all in a row and lastly a squiggle across the strip.

On the first border I did a combination of arches and the written "e" loop together to make one design.  As this was a two pass design, I also learned how to work on the border across upright, across upside down, plus up and down the sides, while advancing the quilt instead of taking it off the frame to flip it.  The last border I did stippling. 

This next picture is of the full quilt.  The way the light shines on it, you can really see the quilting on the hourglass unit.  The rest just disappears.

On my domestic machine I could do all of these designs and many many more, but the longarm is quite different and I feel I am back in kindergarten learning how to write again.  I will still use my domestic machine for very intricate designs for a paying customer, for now, until my skills improve to my standards.  I am continually learning the tricks of the trade, with every quilt I do.  I am grateful that my mom allows me to use her donation quilts to practice.