I just took my MQX Challenge quilt off of the longarm. I know the judges will have a grand time with this one! I've never done trapunto before, never done a challenge quilt for a show and have never entered a quilt in a show, so I call this quilt "Courage". My big mistake was using a thread in the border that was too dark, so in many areas there is the appearance of "thread build up" where I've overlapped the quilting design too much. This quilt is rather stiff...not a good snuggle quilt!
Next comes blocking, binding, rinsing in cold water to remove the blue marks, warm water to remove the water soluble thread, adding three dimensional flowers and maybe a few beads. Of course, I've also never blocked a quilt and have no idea whether to bind first or block first, or how to go about blocking it! This is definitely a quilt of firsts! And it has to be in New Hampshire by April 3rd. I think I can, I think I can...
