Learning new skills

I've been a bit slack lately with blogging and visiting and commenting but I really do have a good reason/excuse. I promise.
I love the the way hand quilting looks. I love sitting quietly and slowly hand quilting my latest quilt and so in the 20 odd years I have been making quilts I have never machine quilted a quilt. I have come to a point in my life where I can no longer avoid learning and using machine Quilting and over the past week I have sat myself down and got on with trying it out.
I can't see the point in doing samples of anything because they are not practical or useful so to begin my Machine Quilting adventure I needed a quilt. This is where the fun bit comes in!!!
I have, (well had now that this week is done!) a small collection of Bark cloth curtains and samples. All at least 50 years old and some in good condition and some not so good. So out they came and after a lot of fiddling and changing things around I came up with this little beauty

The machine quilting wasn't too bad but I really thought I could do much better than I did which meant I needed to make another Quilt.

After this one I think I have got the basics of machine quilting sorted. Well enough to quilt the quilt I needed to learn it for once it is finished.

I used a large piece of curtain for the backing on this one because I had enough to do it and it was in too good condition to chop up!
I am really loving the Quilts though, the fabrics and their colours are just amazing.  So now I am going to have to find more Bark Cloth fabric, by fair means or foul!!!!!
(PS The gorgeous garden seat I have the Quilts displayed on is my Christmas present from the Husband!)