Josh’s Wiggly Lines in a Drunkard’s Path
Josh here for my turn at free motion quilting Wiggly Line’s in a Drunkard’s Path, on Spoonflower cheater fabric.
And here’s the finish:
And the back:
You can see on the front panel how I went off the rails pretty considerably, yet when you flip the block over, it doesn’t look so bad. Still, this block was challenging, and pretty frustrating, but in the end it provided some great practice.
On another note, Leah and I are now back from Pittsburgh, PA, after three amazing days of International Quilt Market. If you haven’t read about our time there over the weekend, Leah has blogged about each day starting with Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
It was a wonderful time and we got to meet so many great quilters and business owners. Unfortunately, we were so busy we had very little time to explore downtown Pittsburgh, save from walking the 1/2 mile from our hotel to the convention center every morning and evening.
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| The view from our hotel window. |
This was my biggest regret about the trip–I would’ve loved to had a chance to check out the heart of downtown and tour the various incredible landmarks, historic bridges, and beautiful skyscrapers. To give you an idea of what a unique city Pittsburgh is (with its more than 400 bridges and hilly landscape), here’s what it’s like entering the city via I-376 through the Fort Pitt tunnel.
I’ve been to a fair number of cities, and I can easily say entering the city proper of Pittsburgh was 100% unique and a jaw-dropping experience. Almost every other city I’ve visited you’re forced to drive through mile after mile of urban sprawl with one franchise, car dealership, and big box store after another. This was not the case entering Pittsburgh via I-376. Green rolling hills, clusters of towns, and scenic, old rail bridges (plus bumper to bumper traffic as we arrived during going home hours) were the only signs you were about to enter a major city. Coming up to the tunnel, I could make out the top of one skyscraper, as if dropped from orbit into the forest beyond the hill.
I will definitely be coming back to properly tour the city. If you’re ever in the area, I suggest you do so too–the city has garnered a bad reputation, which is totally undeserved, at least in my experience. Before we got there, I was under the impression the city was a monument to a tragic 1980s Bruce Springsteen song, a dingy, crime-ridden metropolis, a skeleton of its former industrial power with condemned buildings and riverfronts of decaying steel mills and ironworks. This was absolutely not the case.
Generally, I am not a fan of big cities, and with the exception of Toronto Ontario (far and away the cleanest, best functioning city I’ve ever seen), I’ve never been impressed and really never had any desire to go back to any of them.
I’m happy to say this is quite the contrary with Pittsburgh.
So until next week, let’s go quilt!
Josh
Josh, I've been reading your posts since you started. Your quilting has exponentially improved from the first that you give me hope with my quilting efforts. Thank you.
I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA (now transplanted to northern Florida) and it was wonderful to hear all the wonderful things you had to say about my home town! For some reason, people tend to disparage the city of Pittsburgh, but it is so full of history, beauty and amazing architecture (both in the buildings and the bridges) that it is a true delight. I am glad that you saw all of that and appreciated it during your visit!!
Bruce Springsteen's song was about Philadelphia, not Pittsburgh! My niece was married last fall in Pittsburgh and it was my first time visiting there, I found it to be a great place. Very vibrant and positive city, a good choice for Quilt Market.
Go Josh!
It has been fun seeing Josh improve his skills and become more comfortable with his quilting. It helps me get a better sense of the learning curve for free motion.