Learning curve....

Since my last quilt has been delivered to the special person it was created for I am guessing it is now safe to show it off  ;-)
This quilt proved to be a good example of how much my quilting skills have grown since I first began quilting. ;-) My hubby's comment; "Wow I remember when you were scared to turn on your HQ16 and look at you now!" his comment gave us a chuckle, and lol lol he was oh so true about how scared I was when I first got my HQ16.
Another thing I noticed.... "my last 3 quilts have been created without patterns and designed semi as I moved along in my process.....lol lol  
proved to be quite enjoyable!!!
I saw a post this week the question {Why do you create your art?} and I realized I find it easiest to create my art when I am creating it with someone or something in mind. Guess that would fit in with my goal oriented personality? lol But basically I create my art because it feeds my soul. ;-) How about you, why do you create your art?
Well onward to my newest quilt........
Here's some photos of the process steps taken while I was creating my latest quilt.
This quilt came about because of a special person we know that has courageously had to take on some of life's tough stuff we sometimes get hit with.
I wanted to create a special quilt for her but it had to be completed quickly!
I luckily had on hand a 'layer cake' [40-10 inch pre-cut squares for those of you who do not know what a layer cake is] so decided to come up with a very simple design using 35 of the 10 inch squares and solid white fabric as spacing strips.
As I began sewing the design together I realized some of the sizes of white strips were becoming boring or stagnant looking so decided to become friends with my seam ripper and redo some of the white strips widths. ;-) Aren't digital camera's handy to help one see design flaws?

Deciding on square placement and original strips being sewn

Black and white photo to give me an idea of lights and dark placement

Completed quilt top- if you look closely you might see the white rows alternate thick and thin, hard to notice in the photo

Loaded on HQ16 ready to quilt, but now how to quilt to try to make the simple design stand out?

Became courageous in my free motion design, used hearts in the squares and zig zag lines elsewhere, row of hearts at top and bottom row of quilt.

Possibly you can see  the stitching in the solid soft backing

Completed quilt ready to mail off

Close up of quilting

Backing is nice and soft ;-)

I admit my husband's observation was very true!  I've come a long way in my quilting skills and have enjoyed every minute of my journey.  The plus on this quilt is that I have been told the recipient loves it and my youngest son gave his approval ;-) his quote sent via a text.... "it is so soft" ;-)

Enjoy.....more catch up posting to follow soon...