Oh Moda, intoxicating Moda

While I was waiting for my new sewing machine to arrive last month, I did a little fabric shopping. I bought several sizes of Moda's Fresh Cut series (5" charm paks, 2 1/2" mini charms, and a jelly roll).

Before we went to SoCal, I played with them a little bit.

These blocks have a 5" square with 2 1/2" squares sewn to the corners (the excess trimmed). I had 4 mini charm paks so I used matching fabrics for each of the corners.

This week, I got the sewing machine back out.

I finished the squares and then decided on the borders- Jelly Roll strips with mini charms in the corners.

I do love Jelly Roll strips. They look so pretty even before assembly.

I decided it wasn't big enough as it was

So I added a couple more borders. I used almost an entire Charm Pak for the inner border, and 8 Jelly Roll strips, plus corner blocks for the outermost border.  It's now about 60" x 60", nice lap quilt size.

I free-form quilted it, and all went well until the machine demanded a blood sacrifice.

I now know for sure that the instinct to pull back kicks in before the brain screams HOLY SHIT! I JUST SEWED THROUGH MY FINGER!

Luckily, the needle went through the tip of the nail, which deflected it so that rather than going through the tip of my finger, it just sliced it open. A quarter inch further back, and I would have had a very bad afternoon, indeed. Don't worry, I didn't bleed on the quilt.

Anyway, I taped myself up and soldiered on. And yes, it hurt like hell later on.

This machine really does a great job with quilting, even when I'm not sewing through my own skin.

I love how it came out.The binding used five Jelly Roll Strips (with about 12" left over).

My machine quilting is totally inexact, but that doesn't matter.

I used an old sheet for the backing. I love how quilts look after washing, all foofed up.

Voila!

The fun thing about free form quilting is that you just meander. It's all good. Or it's at least all okay.

Oh, this wasn't a specific pattern. I just played with blocks and arrangements until I found one I liked and went from there.