A bit of learning for me in May

Wow! 

May for Me has really not turned out how we expected, has it?

Marcia, spent a good part of the month caring for her mother in the hospital.

I have spent the last week of the month with my leg all propped up.

(Well, except for that one evening when I forgot that I wasn't superwoman.)

In spite of these things,

it has been a wonderful month! 

With the quilt along, I learned so much about design. That's why I did it...to learn. I love to teach; but I love to learn as well. I have a brand new machine and I was so eager to try all different aspects of it, I decided to use my May for Me quilt as a learning piece. 

I started with pebble quilting. This is done free motion. I am not good at free motion at all; and I really wasn't sure that I like the look of pebble quilting. But it was SO EASY and even when I messed up it just looked like part of the pebbles! I did the pebbles in all of the stitchery blocks.

Next I wanted to try out my new Accufeed foot. 

My new machine (Janome Horizon) has a built in walking foot.

I just did some simple straight line quilting in the four patches.

Then I realized this really wouldn't work for the other blocks,

so I tried out my new quilting guide. 

I set it a bit less than 2" and did diagonal quilting.

For the sashing, I decided my quilt was already a mish mash of quilting patterns,

so why not try some pre-programmed stitches.

Normally, I am not a fan of these. At all.

But this wave wasn't so bad.

It would be ok in something that was very narrow.

(sorry it's fuzzy.)

Next I did another pre-designed stitch.

I did tulips just on the outside sashing.

I really didn't like them much at all.

And I got crooked.

This is the other problem I have with my arm. 

I really have a hard time feeding the quilt evenly and not letting it tug to the left.

My left arm doesn't extend and I really struggle with this step.

So, I need to stick to something that isn't hard to keep straight.

And I am sticking to small quilts too.

Smaller means less tug!

Finally, on the outside border,

I finished my mish mash of learning with just a cross-hatch design.

On the back I used a dark color so that I could purposely see my stitches.

I was testing the tension on my new machine for all of the different types of quilting.

I was very pleased with the result. 

I never changed the tension at all,

whether I was free-motioning or not.

I am loving my new machine for sure after this!

And I have a cute little quilt to hang every spring,

that will remind me of our first ever May for Me!

and all of the wonderful new friends that I met along the way.