It is my third quilt ever, but actually involves a number of firsts for me, among which are: first time making the whole design/pattern myself (although I know I've seen similar sailboat blocks somewhere before), first time free motion maching quilting (as opposed to stitching in the ditch), first time using real quilt batting, and first time using flannel - and a slightly pieced - backing, and first quilt bigger than baby size. So, I'm very happy because I've learned a lot along the way, not least with the help of all your tips and advice on this forum!!! In particular, I've got no blue marks on the red areas thanks to qltsbme!!!
I'm afraid I got completely carried away with the free motion quilting, as I was so happy to see it work at all (well, as you can see, the stitches are quite uneven still, but they are getting better!), so I did several different "seams" in different areas. Here's some of them...
Meandering with variegated blue thread in the sky:
Darker variegated blue thread for waves in the ocean (and, no, what you see is not the bobbin thread coming up on the front side - it is the rayon thread shining in the sun, making the waves glitter and shine...
:
Brown variegated thread in wobbly lines on the ships:
Red anchors (marked with template I drew up myself):
The biggest mistake, however, was thinking I was ready to do free hand "figure-eights", which I clearly wasn't....:
And, when I reached the outer border I chickened out and selected a pre-set decorative stitch and my walking foot (and, here, yes, the bobbin thread does show a bit...):
So sorry for this very lengthy "show-and-tell-post", but I'm so happy to be finished, and couldn't resist sharing with you ladies (and gentlemen). You know, I don't really have a lot of people here to share this with, as quilting is sort of my secret hobby...
