A Lovely Year of Finishes - June Goal

I've been good so far, finishing my goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes every month except one this year. I feel like I set realistic expectations for myself, which is helpful. I find it can be frustrating to always set goals that aren't achievable and constantly miss. Realistic goals are important. That being said, it's always good to push yourself too.

It's a terrible picture, I know, but this is the quilt I'm hoping to finish this month. Would you believe this quilt top is at least eight years old? Probably seeing as though it isn't really my style any more. I actually can't remember the last time I put a boarder on a quilt. (I just checked, and it was at least 15-20 quilts ago, however long ago that was.)

I threw this quilt up on my longarm last week and finished the quilting. It was my first real quilt on my new longarm, and I learned a lot. I learned that it's pretty difficult to do stitch in the ditch and echo quilting your first time around. I might need to get a few rulers and practice some ruler work. 

I learned that my construction skills are much improved from eight years ago. You can sort of see it in this picture, but somehow, in several areas, you can really see the thread where I stitched the blocks together. I have no idea why I didn't fix that before, but it drove me crazy as I was quilting it. This was one of the reasons I picked this quilt to throw on the long arm. It was my very first paper pieced quilt, so why not make it my first real custom longarmed quilt. 

Right now I just need to create the binding, machine sew it to the top, and hand stitch it down. I think that's pretty achievable considering we're entering the summer here in New England and historically, I tend to sew less during that time. Hey, us New Englanders try to take advantage of the good weather, because you never know how long it will last.

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