First Quilt: home stretch

     It's been a few weeks since I posted pics of the Moda Bliss quilt blocks that I completed in my beginning quilting class.  All twelve blocks were finished and a quilt top was made (after much agonizing over the arrangement of the blocks):

      Last week's class was devoted to assembling our quilt sandwiches and learning how to "stitch-in-the-ditch."  We were given the option of quilting along the sashing lines, or go the more labor intensive route and quilt each block separately.  Guess which route I chose.  Yep, I'll be burying twelve knots instead of two.  Sigh.

Stitching in the ditch

     So nice to be in the final stages of making my first quilt.  And so glad I bought the Singer 301, a machine that's great for quilters because of the long bed.  As you can see, this quilt, which is only 39" by 51", isn't a problem to quilt on my machine.  But a larger quilt would cause some issues since the clearance to the right of the needle is only about 5 3/4" wide.  The 301 can accomodate 7" to the right of the needle.  Plus, I have the longbed, which extends out 6 inches.  I hope to use it for my next quilt- just waiting for the walking foot I ordered to come in.

Work area

    
     My work area- the pillows on the chair and books under the foot pedal are there because I'm too short petite to quilt comfortably without them.