Tumbling Blocks Quilt

At last it is finished!
I have previously posted about the making of this quilt in April here and here.

The one thing I would change:  I really should have thought more about my choice of colours and only chosen fabrics that I really loved, as I no longer really like the aqua colour that I used as the tops of the 3D blocks.

The Quilting Process

For me, the quilting on this was a nightmare!
At first, I tried going around each 3D cube in a hexagon shape, but this meant that I had to double back a lot.  So I left it alone for a few days weeks to ponder over a solution.
Next I tried free-motion quilting but my lines were very wonky and my stitches were uneven lengths.I think I need a bit more practice with this skill before doing it on a quilt, so again I left it and went onto creating other things.
In the end, after much procrastination and delaying, a friend who does card-making suggested a solution that I tried and am much happier with the outcome.   And with a sewing-rut reminder from Danielle, I was ready to just crack-on and get it finished last weekend.

I stitched along the tops of the rows of cubes, in a wide zig-zag line, straight across the width of the quilt. Then I went back and stitched the up and down vertical lines in between by lifting the foot and pulling the thread a little to carry on stitching without snipping.  It's not as neat as I'd imagined, and there are a lot of cut threads that I clipped instead of threading through - very lazy of me really.

Here you can see the 10" border fabric as well as my pen lines that mimic the patchwork hexagons all the way over the border to the very edge.  In the above photo you can just see the blue stitching from left to right in the zig-zag. 

It is bound in an Amy Butler fabric ( I think)

Showing the two different mid-tone fabrics. I ended up introducing
a second mid-tone fabric to make the quilt a bit bigger.

What I have learnt

I really enjoy patchwork - measuring, cutting and piecing the jigsaw puzzle together, and am eager to start a new one.  But from now on, unless it's continuous line quilting, I think I will pay a professional to do the quilting.
I only have a limited amount of time to devote to creating, and the feeling of frustration, the worry and the procrastination really took it's toll on my creative output.  The monetary savings by quilting it myself just weren't equal to the cost to my creative well-being.
But on the upside - I am sure she will like this quilt, I am now out of my sewing rut and I am working on a new dress and a new quilt!