Quilting

I like the idea of quilting but I'm not sure if I've got the skills - I'm not neat enough and was never much good at geometry.

I saw this beautiful quilt in a shop in Clayfield a couple of weeks ago and fell in love with it. It's made in India and I think it is in the style of Ralli Quilting.

I would love to be able to make one of these...I've made my elephant template and had a go at making just one block.  Really struggled with the appliqué technique though - At first I thought the motifs were two layers of fabric stitched right sides together and turned inside out. I tried this but it didn't really work - too fiddly. From everything I've read about ralli quilting, it seems that the ladies who make these turn tiny hems in the motifs by hand as they go along.  I don't think I'm ready for a hand-stitched project on this scale just yet...

I got a walking foot and a free-motion quilting foot a couple of weeks ago.  No idea what to do with either of them really.  So now I've been scouring the internet and discount book shops for instructions.    So far The Free Motion Quilting Project is the best I've found with basic instructions for beginners, a quilt-along and video instructions.  There's also a series of tutorial videos from The Missouri Star Quilt Co - great ideas for quilt tops but I think they do all of their quilting on an industrial long-arm machine so there's not much on actual quilt stitching technique or designs (or maybe there is and I just haven't found them all yet).  I had my first go at machine quilting, using my elephant block, bamboo batting and calico backing.  It's not a great first attempt - there is some puckering in the fabric - not sure why as I thought the walking foot was supposed to prevent that from happening.  I've been told that I made the mistake of stitch basting instead of pin basting...I also haven't worked out how to bind it yet but I've borrowed a couple of books from the library and will maybe tackle this today. This is the sandwich which still needs binding and now it needs ironing too: