Ride 'em Cowboy

When I began my quilting, I felt like I wanted to make a quilt for everybody I knew.  When I finished each quilt, though, it was hard to let them go.  This quilt has that story, but I am not going to go into the details right now.

The big reason I was so attached to this quilt was the new techniques I was able to try, and I was really happy with how they turned out.

The first thing I wanted to try was fussy cutting.  The cowboy fabric had the cutest rodeo scenes and I wanted to capture them individually and set them in the quilt. I then added the 9-patch blocks in between them in contrasting colors. Finally, I added the borders to frame it, including more of the red bandana fabric that I love.

The most exciting thing I wanted to try though, was the binding.  I made a bias binding and then frayed the edges like a raggy-shaggy quilt.  It was not easy brushing all of it out to make it fray, but I was so happy with how it turned out.  It was so long ago I can't even remember what magazine I read about this technique in, but all that work was totally worth it as it looks, and feels great!

This was also my first attempt at quilting myself, and although the straight lines turned out nice, the meander is horrible.  There's a reason there's no photo's of that; I wasn't brave enough to post those pictures. I guess this is a good quilt to remind myself how far I have come with my quilting.