Homemade Side Leaders For Matilda

I needed some side leaders for Matilda because the ruler plate was hitting the clamps. There were some sections that were left from cutting the leaders from a twelve foot length to ten feet. I hemmed the leftover sections so they would be the right size. A casing was added on the edge of each leader to accomodate a wooden dowel for the clamps to clip onto. The leader is attached to the edge of the quilt with long pins. If I can come up with an easier way to attach it instead of pins, that would be good. Maybe magnets would work? Anyway, the side leaders really helped and I will use them from now on.

Streak Of Lightning Is Completed

I just finished stitching the binding on this "Streak of Lightning" quilt. The pattern is from the More Nickel Quilts book by Pat Speth. A piece of wide muslin fabric from my stash was used for the backing. It was a bit too short for this quilt, so I added some orphan blocks, plua a strip of tone on tone cream fabric on each long edge of the row. I free-motion quilted it with a "Topographical Map" design. It was my first attempt at this style, I learned about it from Susan Smith's YouTube channel. Some of my squiggles look like cinnamon buns, haha! It's supposed to take about 10,000 hours to really master a skill. It's a good thing I have plenty of quilt tops to experiment with different quilting designs. I read this quote today and thought it was good: “There are five important things for living a successful and fulfilling life: never stop dreaming, never stop believing, never give up, never stop trying, and never stop learning.” ― Roy Bennett