Full Disclosure

Okay, here ya go! (I really hope that you are able to click on these photos to make them larger. It's kind of a hit and miss thing, though I have no idea why.)

Here's the front of the quilt. I love how it looks after being washed...all soft and crinkly. Size is 42x52 (after washing). (the 'bumps' in the top of the quilt - both front and back photos are just cuz I didn't smooth out the top...just threw the quilt on the floor and took the photo. sorry.)

Here's the back. I am very pleased with how the piecing of it worked out...matched seams and all. There is a lot of quilting on this baby!!!

Here's a closeup of the label. All my quilts will have the brown dog silhouette as a label. Makes me smile. I may invest in some kind of pen to write with...on this one, I very primitively stitched '2009' with floss.
This pattern is a Crazy Nine-Patch pattern that I found...here's the tutorial. Very easy and fun! I used my walking foot to quilt square spirals in each of the blocks (whew...all that turning was not so much fun), and to quilt straight lines in the sashings and borders. Then, I used my darning foot to do free-motion quilting on the larger outside border. I practiced a LOT before attempting it on the quilt.

I used Coats and Clark machine quilting thread until I got to the free-motion quilting. My tension was way off and when I adjusted it so that it looked correct, the thread kept breaking. So, I switched to Gutermann machine quilting thread and put my tension back to where it started and it worked great! whew.

I am very proud of my corners...they are mitered perfectly! And, it was easy!
All in all, I am very pleased with how this turned out.

This was my 'practice' quilt. If I had known then what I know now (one of the main things is that I learned that I can do this!), I would have done a few things differently. But, I didn't want to be afraid of making mistakes, so deliberately chose colors/fabric that I would not grieve over. ~sigh~

So, what would I do differently?

1. I would choose different colors for the blocks.
2. I would not use the damask print I used for the sashings and border...too large of a design and I had to work with it more than if it had an overall smaller design. (But, if you can tell, everything is right side up and matching! woohoo!!!)
3. I was bored and didn't want to do more quilting in a block (ya know, stitch, turn, stitch, turn, stitch...) so I quilted one of the borders...got some puckers when I quilted the sashings...coming into the straight lines in the border. oops. I know...work from the center. Wasn't thinking. Apparently.

That's about it!