Dahlia Quilting Finished

I love this wallhanging. I worked very hard to hand piece the Dahlia. Several people I know have indicated "Hand piecing deserves hand quilting". I have never hand quilted a thing in my life. I thought I would give it a try. The ladies on the about.com quilting forum gave me great directions on how to do this. I sandwiched, I basted with pins, I bought the right needles and thread. I tried, I really did, but It looked horrible! And..... I kept thinking to myself, hand piecing deserves pretty quilting, something I knew wouldn't happen if I quilted this by hand. My son saw me trying and said, "Why are you riding a bike when you own a cadillac?" LOL He was right. I took apart the basting with pins and the quilting I had attempted and put it on the handiquilter, and machine quilted it. I like how it turned out and that is what matters truly.




Here is the full picture



I finished the center Dahlia of a second Dahlia Thursday night. I had used the scraps from this one to make the second one, but they are in a different placement.
I haven't taken a picture of that one yet.