My Very First Quilt Top

Drum roll, please. Here is the circle quilt top. It turned out pretty well, even if I do say so myself. Here is the picture, then I'll finish the story...

It's fine, right? Just ignore the little pieces of masking tape. Those are the row and column labels that I used to keep my blocks in order. Guess I could take those off now, huh?

I was so proud of it that I took it into the quilt shop to share my progress. But here's the thing. While I was in the shop looking at fabric for some future projects, one of the owners gave me some invaluable advice. She suggested that a border would really add some pizzaz to my quilt. She explained that the border is like the matte in a framed portrait. The binding is the frame, but you need something to separate the frame from the subject, or the quilt from the binding. Enter a border. Seriously, enter a border and see what happens. It's incredible.

Here's another shot.

Can you believe the difference? This just makes the quilt top look finished. Here is a close-up of the corner to show the detail in the border print.

Next, I will add a white second border, to outline the print border, and then the binding is solid yellow quilt binding. The border print will double as backing, with a strip made up of two of the quilted rows running about two-thirds of the way down the backing. 

What I learned today is that not only can simple things (like a border) really make a huge difference in a project, but also that if you ask questions, share your work, and seek out people who will help you, then you will learn things that you wouldn't have picked up on your own. And shopping in that little quilting shop means that I'm paying more for what I'm purchasing, but I'm also getting expert advice and encouragement that I can't get from a chain store. The ladies in the chain stores are definitely nice, but today, I had an owner and an additional quilter in the shop who devoted an hour just to showing me the ropes, explaining different ways to do what I was doing, and helping me select fabric for this and other projects. I would say that the small difference in price is definitely made up for by the quality of the fabric I was able to buy, but more importantly, in the one-on-one attention that I received.