I was happy to hand applique the flower and bug panels. They were fun, and I could knock them out while sitting through ballet and swimming lessons.
The patchwork was quick too. But the quilting was slow! My only previous quilting experience was a baby quilt for a friend, which actually didn't turn out too well. So, I bought a walking foot and a darning foot which were a big help. Even still, it was a hassle. I had to keep picking up my foot and stopping and restarting because I was hesitant to quilt over the appliques.
Utlimately, I ended up using the walking foot to quilt diagonally through the squares. I stitched in the ditch around all the panels and through the pinwheels, and I stippled inside the panels but not over the appliques. This meant lots of stopping and starting and changing of feet which wasn't fun. I even had to hand quilt a bit through the appliques because the wadding I chose had to be stiched at least every three and a half inches.
The pattern I used came from the book Material Obsession by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke. I did not follow the pattern completely. I chose a slightly different colour scheme, and I added some bug appliques rather than using more flower patterns. The copy of the book I had seemed to have a printing error. The paragraph, where they were about to suggest how to quilt the blanket, ends mid sentence at the end of the page! I have no idea how one was supposed to quilt this. I am just very happy to have it finished. Now, I just have to make a matching pillow sham...
