A Friday Finish in June

     I have a special finish to share with you. This quilt, as simple as it is, represents my online quilting journey in a couple of ways.

     I guess I can say it started with Rachel Houser of Stitched in Color, but I'll get back to her later.  For now I'll say it started with Cheryl Brickey of Meadowmist Designs.  You see back in 2015 I was a pretty new and tentative quilt blogger. Quite unsure of myself and where I fit in.  Cheryl put out a call for pattern testers. Filled with a new bravery to try things, I offered to pattern test Grande Scrappy Tiles and participated in my first blog hop.

     I wanted to do a great job on my pattern testing and I chose my fabrics using a technique I learned from Rachel Hauser when I participated in her Penny Patch Quilt along.  See, I told you I would get back to her.  I think I did a great job on my colour and fabric choices and I love so many of the fabrics in this quilt.  I have not met Rachel but I believe she is also down to earth.  I have taken two of her online courses and I still have the great resources that came with those classes.

     I also wanted the quilt to finish nicely so I paid extra attention to my 1/4" seams.  I started to become a more accurate piecer.

      Grande Scrappy Tiles was the second quilt I chose to quilt on our mid arm, and the first of my own.  My goal for the quilting was to try out a bunch of different designs and to get comfortable using the machine.  It took several sessions at Wendy's place to finish the quilting and I I can say that I am much more comfortable with the machine. It's a pretty big quilt 72" by 72" and there are several issues with tension and stitch length but I know that these things will improve with practise.  This quilt marks the beginning of my journey with mid arm quilting and I am pleased with the result, warts and all.

          I love this quilt and I will be keeping it at my place. I'm thinking it will be a great quilt for our grand boys when they are a bit older and stay over at our place. At the moment we always go to their place when we babysit.  It's Friday so I will be linking my post  with TGIFF which is hosted this week by Leanne at Devoted Quilter,  and with Bragg About Your Beauties with Michelle of From Bolt to Beauty.  I wonder who else will be there.
    This is also my second finish for quarter 2 of the 2019 FAL so I'll be linking up there as well, a bit later in the month.  I wonder if I can squeeze another finish in....maybe a small one.