Thoughts From A Shabby Quilt

This is my first completed quilt. I started quilting approximately 4 years ago, and it was love at first stitch. A whole new world opened up to me. An artistic world that I thought I could never be a part of.

French Roses is a very simple and easy pattern to make. It is a raw edge applique quilt. In my opinion, it is the easiest type of applique there is. The most difficult step in the quilt pattern is cutting out the pieces. Once you have cut out the flowers, you simply sew one flower-top on the other from biggest to smallest. After washing, the edges will fray, which gives the quilt a shabby look.

As for the free motion machine quilting... well, like I wrote earlier, this was my first completed quilt. There was no way I was going to do stitch-in-the-ditch. Nooooo, I had to free motion quilt it with colorful variegated thread. If I could make one recommendation for beginning quilter's, it would be to use a matching thread.

I remember a lady in my sampler quilting class that never liked anyone's color choices. She would always criticize other students' quilts. We will call her the "Pessimist." When another student brought in the French Roses quilt pattern I was immediately drawn to it. The Pessimist, with a "how dare you think about doing that pattern" look on her face, told me that the pattern was way to advanced for a beginner. Being the prove-you-wrong person that I am (my parents always thought I would be a lawyer), I didn't listen to her and went on and finished the quilt before the last day of the sampler quilt class. The point of the story is: Don't let people tell you what you can or can't do. It is a sad thing to go through life as though you are confined to a body cast when there aren't any broken bones. The fear of failure and rejection can be so paralyzing. You never know what you can do unless you try. With each "failure" you will be closer to perfecting the desired end result.

Jamie