The Wonky Name Banner

Ok, I wanted to hop on the blog real quick before it lights up with swap block pictures, later this week, and tell you about this name banner I've made. Much like my attempt at the doll quilt, this is not the best thing I've ever posted, but its still meaningful to me.

I started out admiring Tonya's work over on the Lazy Gal Quilting site. I figured I'd give it a go. I read through the "how to make letters" bit... but I didn't memorize the method, nor did I print out the directions for each of my 7 letters. {whoops} I went into the sewing studio and decided to wing it. The S has the most noticable "whoops" going on, but I'm ok with it. It looks very... um... rustic. I'm sure its still nice enough to display somewhere in the house. We shall see.

My favorite part of this 40" x 10" name banner is the quilting. My MIL taught me a few design motifs while I was over at her place during the Christmas break. She taught me how to move the amazing longarm to draw free motion designs. Start with a long windy ribbon and every so often, break into a 5 pointed flower. These designs will make "stripes" along the quilt. It was super fun. It did take a bit of effort to translate those movements to my regular home sewing machine. I think it went well. Who can resist yellow springy flowers? The flowers aren't all 5 pointed though- sometimes I made the petals too big or just lost count with the "loop right, loop left, crazy 8 shape, oh, whoops, one more loopy" heh. The image is actually quite large, so if you click on it, it should grow.

Thats what I have to share today. The great Spring 2009 Quilt Block Swap is officially closed with everything set to be in the mail Monday, March 23rd. That means, today or Thursday or maybe even Friday, I'm going to have ALOT more mail in my box. AND many more pictures to share.

Thanks for following along!

The Wonky Name Banner