Finished! Teddy Bear Baby Quilt

This quilt is hand appliqued and hand quilted.  I followed directions, mostly, from a quilting book I got from a friend. It seemed as if this quilt took a long time.  There are several reasons for why this quilt took so long, even though it is a baby quilt. 

One reason is due to my efforts to go slow, do the best job I can, and increase my skills.  I worked very hard to make my hand quilting stitches as small and even as I could.  I am also now using the quarter inch masking tape to make sure my lines are as close to straight and evenly spaced as can be. 

I am also happy to say the back has no puckers, so my basting is working better.  I've found that what works for me is taping the layers to the floor with masking tape or painter's tape and rather than using basting safety pins, I have found that basting by hand stitching, using a large curved needle, works best for me. 

Another reason this quilt took so long, besides breaking to cook for Thanksgiving and Christmas, is that I took a break and did four more quilt toppers, all in various stages of completion. 

And, last but not least, I also don't give myself totally over to quilting madly all day long, which would be easy for me to do.  There have been times when I've started quilting before even showering (or it's embarrassing to admit this, but not even having brushed my teeth) in the morning and found myself still hard at it late in the afternoon, not even breaking to eat and or drink and trying, and like a child happily playing, to not even break go to the bathroom. And when I do, I am practically running because I've been holding it for so long.  Yeah, like I said, it's embarrassing to admit but there you have it.  The truth.  It is so addicting.  And I tend towards the addictive personality, so I force myself now to make sure I go for walks or a run, to take long hikes with  my cameras, call my mother, daughter, sisters and friends (though I can put them on speaker phone and quilt, tee hee), cook fun foods, and blog. 

I have found that I really like applique quilts.  I think it is because, as a child, I loved drawing and also playing with paper dolls.  Applique is similar to that.  I read quilting books and see the patterns for the appliques.  I look at how they do that, but I am partly using them and partly going free hand.  My goal, after I increase my skills more and get a better variety of experience in types of quilting, is go fully free hand, pattern-free even, to design my own quilts and get very contemporary.  I want to paint my own fabrics, to use a variety of types of fabrics, and maybe introduce other items into the mix - mixed media.  And with all that, I want to continue to try to repurpose fabrics and items.  That appeals to me so much.