Trying something new in a small way

I love the graffiti quilting by Karlee Porter.  I have saved lots of her designs on Pinterest.  So I thought about how to just ease into doing some fairly quickly.  So I took an afternoon rest from doing client quilts to sit at my new Bernina and try.

First because the creation of a pattern seemed too daunting for a trial run although I do freehand quilting on large quilt and small quilts, I unearthed a plastic quilting template.  Just the right size.  I then used an old piece of sheeting and some leftover batting to create the sandwich but not before I used the template to trace a pattern on the top piece of fabric.  The design was actually quite simple but it gave me spaces to fill in. 

It was fun.  I got out some threads from my stash for embroidery and started to outline and fill the spaces. 

It worked.  It is a start with training wheels.  Now I feel I can sketch a pattern; not too complex but with space to be creative and try again adding more detail and some thread sketching which I have done before.  

Most important thing is to try.   Then came binding so I tried something different that did not require me to hand finish the back of the binding.  This was to be a quick exercise. 

I put on a flange pieces, put an additional back on and made it like a pillow you turn inside out.  Did that then stitched it closed carefully, flipped the little flange to the front and did a blanket stitch.  It worked but I would make the flange piece a bit bigger next time and trim a more off the corners.  Again, important to try.