Work in progress

It occurred to me that I've fallen into the habit of only blogging when I have a finished quilt to show.  That was really not intentional.  In general, quilters get a little too concerned about productivity and having things finished.  And maybe we're a little too sensitive to the fact that we have UFOs.  Many, many UFOs.  We worry about getting them done.  We think we would be better somehow if we immediately finished every top we made.  I kind of like the idea that a hundred years from now some woman will hold up one of my UFOs at a guild meeting and say, "I found this quilt top in a trunk that belonged to my husband's grandmother..." 

I am quilting something right now.  It will not be the top in the trunk.  It may actually be finished this weekend.  But here it is in all its unfinished glory - a work in progress.

There.  The ice is broken.  I can show works in progress.

This is another of the zig zag quilts.  Why, you might ask, is she making so many of those?  This will be the suggested design for our guild's 2011-12 baby quilt project.  I want to have a lot of samples to show to get members fired up about the project. 

The earlier ones had the blocks set on point.  This one does not, which makes it a perfect project for a beginner.  So we might use this for new quilters in our guild's mentor program too.

This is what I am doing for the quilting.  Quilting in the ditch between the white and the pink zig zags.  This was done free motion due to the number of turns that would have been required.  Now I am quilting wavy lines in the center of each zig zag.  I like baby quilts to have substantial, but not heavy quilting.  To make the quilting more substantial, I use fairly short stitches.  I think longer stitches are more likely to break if tugged or pulled.  Tugging and pulling is a given if the baby becomes attached to the quilt and continues to use it for a long time.  I am always happy when a baby quilt is used.  I feel kind of sad when it is saved so nothing will happen to it.