My first quilt from the frame!

     I did it! I quilted this little quilt on my frame today. I got it bound too, so it was a good day. I had an issue with the binding, but it ended up being a good thing. This picture was taken right after I got it out of the dryer, all wrinkly and quilty.

      I've been trying to use up some old binding, instead of always making new. I had enough  of some navy dotted binding to do this quilt, but when I took it out and looked at it, something had ruined part of it as it was wrapped around the card it was on. Only one end was ruined, but that meant every few inches there was a ruined spot. I had polka dotted binding in other colors, but not enough of any one color to do even this baby quilt. In the Yahoo group Stashbusters, there has been a lot of discussion lately on scrappy binding. I've never done that before, but as I was looking at what I had, I figured it was time to try it. I cut the ruined parts out of the navy binding, and added in lengths from the other colors. I only made enough of the scrappy binding to do this quilt, because I wanted to get it done and washed. I like the look of the scrappy binding much better than I thought I would. 

     Tonight, I dug out all the binding I only had a small amounts of, and I'm working on making solid scrappy binding. I will try to get all of it sewn together in the next few days, as well as working with the rest of the dotted binding I have. I think there is enough dotted to do at least one more quilt, maybe two if they are small. When I'm done with my solid binding, I should have enough for three or four quilts. I am making sure I don't use any lengths longer than about 18 inches. I don't want one side of a baby quilt all one color and multiple colors on the other sides. It's a lot of joining, but if I get the small pieces I have now done, I can add a little along as I do other quilts with one color binding. Lots of work to make it usable, but I figure once it's together I will use it, instead of having it sit in a drawer because it's too small to do a whole quilt with. Now that there is binding all over my sewing room, I'll have to finish it up before I go back to working on my other piecing projects.

     Here is a close-up on one corner. You can see my wobbly quilting, and get a better look at my scrappy binding. I picked a simple curlicue pattern to practice. I think this is a good overall pattern, and I can use it on my grandbaby's cat quilt. I want to practice on a couple more quilts before I do that one. I loaded another scrap quilt on the frame, for me to work on in the morning. I am getting a little faster each time I load a quilt, and I didn't have to think so much about which way to load the fabrics.  I did have a few issues on the frame today. I had the thread break a couple of times, and I forgot to put the presser foot down once, so I had a mess to unpick, not to mention the nest in the bobbin area. I am using a different brand of thread on tomorrow's quilt, so I'm looking forward to seeing if I notice a difference. I already had to adjust the tension for the new thread because it is a different weight.