Hi everyone! Did anyone take up the free motion challenge? You can do it! In fact, once you get the hang of it, you'll find that a stitch regulated machine will probably not work for you. You are better than a machine...yes, it's true! That's a future blog topic though, so I'll cease and desist now. Today, I wanted to tell you about the early quilts I did after I finished that initial bargello (see my previous posts for the entire story). After passing that first piecing and free motion hurdle, I entered what can only be called "The Kit Era". The Kit Era lasted from 2005 to 2007. I scoured the internet, my local quilt shops, went to the show (there's only one annual show here) and went on my own shop hop in Edmonton, where my parents live, in conjunction with a visit. I bought lots of quilt kits...full size ones, wall hangings, all sizes....just anything that peaked my interest or spoke to me. I signed up for a couple of block of the month's as well. So far, I had completed a wall hanging applique and a king size bargello. Now it was time to "safely" try out new techniques, learn how to piece better and applique better. If you lack color confidence just yet, kits are a safe way to learn because you don't need to choose the fabrics..you choose based on whether you like the finished quilt. Also you only pay for the fabric needed. If the pattern calls for a one inch square that's what you get. If you had to buy the fabric you would have to buy a minimum cut of 1/8 or 1/4 yd depending on the shop. So, it's more economical in that way. The only caution with kits is that there isn't much room for cutting mistakes, so be careful with all the cutting and measuring. Read ALL the instructions first and understand them before you pull out the rotary cutter or scissors. I attended my city's only annual show for my first foray into the world of kits. From this show I bought a log cabin quilt called "At the Lake". Since I have a cabin at Moyie Lake, BC, you can guess why this caught my interest. As you can see if you look closely, after that last quilt, the king size bargello with the free motion quilting (pinecones and stippling), I was REALLY tired of free motion, so went with a straight diagonal stitch using a walking foot. I was going to do diagonal lines in the other direction too to make a diamond grid (I'd read that this looked good on log cabins), but honestly I was so tired of those lines that I just left it as is without doing the set that would have made the diamonds.  
At that same show, I also bought a couple of simple applique wall hanging kits. 
From my internet searching and with the help of my quilting buddy Lynda, who originally pointed me to this quilt artist's site, I discovered McKenna Ryan. I found a quilt shop on the internet that was doing a block of the month for her Journey to Light patterns. This is all applique, but it looks more daunting that it really was. That's because you only do it one block at a time. I love all her patterns! 
With a Block of the Month (BOM for short) the fabrics and patterns are sent to you one at a time each month. So each month you'll get one part of the pattern and the fabrics needed to complete those blocks. Depending on the design, BOM's may come more than one block at a time, especially if the blocks are small. They usually try to spread it out over a year (12 months). Some are shorter. This one was 7 blocks, so it was a 8 month program, if I recall correctly. One month was the finishing kit. Next post?.....more completed quilts from kits...this time from my self-directed Shop Hop in Edmonton, Alberta. Happy quilting! | 
