The Lesson

I threw myself a birthday partly this past summer, and my long-arm quilter came. I gave her a flimsy to be quilted and all the guests and I were looking at it. Someone asked her a question. She flipped the flimsy over, revealing the back. (I felt like somebody threw open my underwear drawer.)

"Look at this. See how the seams match perfectly? See how the seams are pressed so neatly? See how there are no loose threads? This quilt is square and lies flat. THIS is a dream to work with. I quilt over 300 quilts a year. THIS is rare. You wouldn't believe the crap I get. I LOVE quilting Lynne's quilts."

I was taken aback, to say the least. I know I do good work, and we have all heard about how long arm quilters are fussy about the flimsies they quilt, but I thought it was a story worth sharing. You can look at the back of the Nightingale quilt, a detail of which is in the photo above. You can see the seams are neat, and there are no loose threads Sure, the fabric ravels, and some of those threads show, but that's the nature of the beast.

If there are any of you have don't believe the stories you've heard, here it is writ large: Press your seams, trim your threads. Make sure your work is square and lies flat without any ripples. It makes a big difference.

Allegretto is Finished

 Silly me, I forgot I had named this quilt already. It's Allegretto. On Sunday morning, still in my nightgown, I went into the studio and finished sewing the blocks together.

Heh. Yes, this is the back of the flimsy. I don't photograph the wrong sides of my quilts often enough.

This is, as they say, an actual, unretouched photo of the wrong side of the quilt. You do not see any stray threads. You do not see any sloppy pressing. I won't say I work hard to get my quilts to look this way, but I do pay attention. I trim all threads. I press all seams. And I use steam. I am of the belief that your longarm quilter will thank you if the wrong side of you quilts look like this. If that makes me a snob, so be it.

Here's the finished flimsy. You can click the photo and then click again to check out the fabrics. At last count there are 42 unique fabrics in this quilt. There are 120 blocks. You can do the math.

Or not!