Boot Scootin' quilt

One of my clients made this quilt for her teenage granddaughter, who will be graduating from high school this spring and going off to university in Lethbridge, Alberta. This barrel-racing girl will be sure to love her grandma's grad gift!

I outlined the appliquéd boots and did a starburst radiating out from them. In the patchwork blocks I did a paisley filler. Curved cross-hatch in the setting triangles. Beadboard in the wide borders. Rope motif in the narrow inner border.

I wanted to include the following photos, because I often hear from people who say things like, "I'm not a well-skilled quilter," or, "I don't make fancy quilts," or, "I'm not an award-winner. My quilts aren't perfect." This quilt had a small glitch, and guess what... so does every quilt I've ever seen! 

The most common issue I work with is wavy borders, and I've gotten pretty decent at getting them to lay flat (or at least APPEAR to lay flat). I also often see seams that are pulling apart, which I can easily secure by tacking down with quilting stitches. 

In this example, there was a seam that had a little flaw - the fabric from the block got snagged into the seam allowance for a few inches, and it was making the surround areas pucker. I ripped out those stitches and fixed the seam, and I don't think any on-lookers will ever be the wiser. 

Here's the view on the backside. You can see the little flaw in the seam, where the block's fabric got stitched into the seam allowance.

Here's the result after I picked out the seam and fixed it. After I pressed it and quilted it, it completely blended into the rest of the piece.

So, PLEASE - give yourself a break! Don't feel like your quilts have to be perfect. This is a human art form. It is not SUPPOSED to be perfect. It is supposed to be crafted with care and love. Construct your quilts with those, and that's all you need. And maybe also a longarm quilter who is handy at working with those perfect imperfections. Wink, wink!