Fall Trees!

I was lucky enough to take my first piecing class with Lee Monroe at Sew Original back in November. Since I have been mostly self taught, I thought it would be great to pick up some extra mad skills from a master. I really liked the look of her Blue Ridge quilt pattern. Simple, modern. I thought it would be fun in fall colors.

Lee is amazing! You can find her at maychappell.com. She has lots of great patterns and offers a super helpful sewing tip every Tuesday. I learned a lot from her.

Check it out! Do you see all of these perfect points? I bought a Bloc Loc flying geese ruler which made squaring up all these geese a breeze. And Lee showed us a great technique for making sure they all line up. There might be one or two that are off very slightly, but the rest are dead on. And when I measured the quilt, I wasn't even off by 1/4"!!!! Amazing! Of course now I realize that my hanging rod is not actually level. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

The quilting design was a bit of a challenge. I didn't really want to quilt it. I loved the simple look. I definitely didn't want to stitch in the ditch, especially since most of the seams are pressed open.

My first thought was swirls. I was thinking swirling winds across the whole quilt. But when I put a piece of muslin at the top of the quilt and stitched a sample pattern, I wasn't too sure. It just didn't look right. As a friend said, it was too messy a design for a simple pattern. I ended up turning the quilt this way so I could put my channel locks to good use and stitch straight lines across the whole quilt. I was going to stitch them all a 1/2" apart, but I liked the random look better. 

Dog approves:) This quilt looks great on my dining room wall. Just the thing to add some color to winter. 

Thanks so much Lee! Can't wait to take another class:)