Quilted!

I had an opportunity to quilt my first quilt on the PCQ club's long arm earlier this week. A friend who's also newly trained helped me. Whatever I didn't remember from the training, she did, and vice versa, so we did okay. There was an experienced quilter in the room part of the time who advised us as well. We quilted the navy and yellow Strippy HST charity quilt I pieced last month. 

The quilting is not good, but not terrible either for a first attempt. We learned too late, after we'd already done one pass, that the panto I chose is actually for borders, not supposed to be an allover pattern, but it worked well enough. We had a little trouble figuring out the alignment when we advanced the quilt, but we got it worked out and it came out relatively even. 

Because of the high contrast in the fabrics, no matter what color thread I used it would show up a lot on half of the quilt. I chose a medium yellow; it blends with the light yellow prints but shows up a lot on the navy. 

Following a panto is harder than it looks! I have a whole new level of respect for professional quilters. All the steps to get everything loaded on the frame, and the practice it takes to follow the panto with the laser, it'll take me a lot of practice to get more proficient. I'll help my friend with her project when she does one so we both get practice. 

The back looks really good because the thread color blends well. Most of the fabrics in this quilt came from the club's stash, including this backing. 

I'll admit, using the long arm for the first time was a bit stressful. But I'm looking forward to future opportunities to quilt charity quilts for the club so I can get more practice. Because there are so many people who want to use the long arm, one can only sign up to use it every three weeks. And if you don't use it at least once every three months, you have to take the training again. Maybe next time I quilt on the long arm I'll do a freehand meander from the front of the machine instead of following a panto from the back. It would actually be faster, easier, and less stressful. 

This quilt is a donation for the club's charity efforts. I'll put the club's label on it and wash it, and it will go to the hospice we support. 

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Alycia Quilts