…did not got as planned. I cleaned and oiled my machine as I do before I start a quilt and started having problems immediately. Of course it took me 2 1/2 hours to figure out that my needle was not in correctly. Grrr. Of course it was my own fault. After that I completed just one row and cleaned up.
I am also working on this project. I changed it up a little and here are some of my blocks:
I got the rows sewn together today and I hope to get the top together…this Saturday!
Diane
This is a quilt that Mimi made. John will probably be coming up for the State Fair at the end of the month so I am trying to get a few quilts ready for him. I quilted another in July; I just need to get the binding on it. Pictures later.
Mimi and I had very different tastes (except for our Civil War repro obsession) but we always liked each other’s quilts.
Connie (at Mission Rose) helped me pick out the fabric for the back (a nice medium pink) and the binding (medium grey). Feminine and masculine at the same time! (Oh dear…is that sexist?)
I am using the same panto I use a lot for my quilts. It goes quickly and looks nice when finished. Not sure if I will use grey or white thread. I need to pick up a batt tomorrow and then Saturday I can start quilting!
Have a good weekend!
Diane
1. I have way too much fabric. Of course I already knew that but still…These were fabrics ear-marked for a civil war repro, but I have two in the works so I decided to make this quilt. All fabrics from stash, front and back.
2. Careful seaming is not optional. This is an Eleanor Burns pattern where you sew, tube, and cut to get the stair step effect. The directions say to keep one edge straight as you sew your strips together and then straighten the other edge at the end. As you can see, that edge was far from straight. Note to self: pin carefully-you know better!
3. Pieced backs are economical but this was really dumb. There were a LOT of seams that made rolling my quilt neatly tough. And I wish I had saved some of the fabric. (See #4.)
4. Put your binding fabric away, far away from backing fabrics. That way you won’t use it accidentally.
5. When quilting, if I put my tongue just right in my mouth, the edges come out much neater. Also, going slowly helps. I can now use one hand for quilting and one hand to smooth the fabric. Yay!
6. If I take the time to hand baste the top and bottom of the quilt on my frame, things go much more smoothly. Machine quilting purists may disagree but that’s my story and I am sticking to it.
7. Blues don’t play well together. I may have to pick another color for the binding. (Again, see #4)
On to the next quilt!
Diane
I was machine quilting this morning on my frame when the bobbin ran out. I decided it was a good time to dust a little and change my needle.
And then I saw this:
Of course I freaked out ! (I did not realize how bad my nails look-sorry) After some searching I saw that it was the screw on the door of the bobbin case.
Michael got his teeny tiny screw driver and we got it put back in.
Back to sewing!
Diane
1. That finished is better than perfect. (Although I still spent some time picking out stitches)
2. Wonky sometimes works. I think that the jar tops are my favorite part!
3. My micro-stippling is ok but would be better with an open toe foot – so I ordered one!
4. I can use the foot to help me gauge distances when quilting. (I wish I had figured that one out sooner!)
5. The quilting that takes the longest (in terms of starting and stopping) doesn’t always show up. For example, the brown, above.
6. I think that I switched the border and binding fabrics. My less than perfect quilting would have been less noticeable!
7. I am becoming a little more confident in my machine quilting!
What did you learn today?
Diane
…and on the frame!
I made this quilt a couple of years ago (yeah, yeah, old story!). I have decided to play a little and use different thread colors and quilting motifs.
Buddy enjoys consulting with me on the quilting. His input is very important!
Below is a quilt I am making with my beginning quilting class. It is a little retro but it teaches a lot of piecing fundamentals. I think I will be quilting it on my Bernina and the walking foot.
It is a little more red than I had planned but I really do like the simplicity. There is no big print to “pop” but oh well…
Diane
P.S. Don’t you love this font? It reminds me of my days in 3rd grade, teaching cursive!
It occurred to me the other day that I had done no quilting on my frame since August! So I pulled out an old project, cleaned and oiled my machine and got ready to do some quilting.
I wasn’t sure what color thread I wanted to use so I wound a small bobbin and did some practice on scraps from the quilt. The color and tension looked good so I wound some more bobbins, rethreaded everything and went to work.
(The blue tape is for me to know how far I can quilt-sometimes I forget or mis-gauge)
I did one row and rolled the quilt and this is what I saw:
I think that I put my bobbin in incorrectly(I was having a little trouble) resulting in this mess on the back. Grrr!!
It could have been worse: those stitched will be easy (relatively speaking) to pull out.
I always suggest that you fix mistakes before stopping for the day but I just didn’t have it in me. So now I know what I will be doing tomorrow!
Diane
I am working on this quilt. I did not take a picture before I put it on the frame but it is a Double Irish Chain (Eleanor Burns).
I did not want to do an all over meander and I felt each block should be quilted separately. But the blocks are 10” and I can quilt up to about 7” in width with each pass.
This is the quilt pattern that I want to use. I had the block resized to the correct size (@ Staples) and then I went to work.
Now some people are very talented and can do simple marking and do beautiful quilting. I am not some people. I ended up tracing each half of the block pattern onto long strips of tissue (Golden Threads).
I will pin each strip to the quilt and then sew through the paper. I traced out 10 pattern strips for the body of the quilt, 4 for the border and 4 corners.
Interesting. I just compared the little picture of the quilting design and my templates and they are not the same. Hmmm…Evidently I traced my pattern from a different variation of the design…
I will keep you updated.
Oh I hope you like this as much as we do!
Michael and I went to Katie’s on Christmas morning to watch the boys open presents. We got Dylan a guitar and this is part of his first concert.
In case you don’t recognize the song, I only know it as “The Tractor Song” by Jason Aldean.
Enjoy!
Next week Mimi and I are meeting in Lancaster, PA. We will do a little shopping, some sewing and lots of talking. When my husband and I visited Mimi and John this past summer, Mimi gave me a top to quilt for her. I posted about it here.
I finished the quilting this past weekend. While I was quilting it I thought that it was a yellow brick road quilt but I don’t think it is. Have you been holding out on me, Mimi? What pattern did you use??
Anyway it is done. Here is a close-up of the quilting.
Now I can bring it when we get together and Mimi can practice putting on bindings. I think we both did a great job!
Last night I was talking to my friend Mimi and I told her that her quilt was on the frame and I would be bringing it when we get together next month in Lancaster. And she asked me, “What quilt?” She had no memory of giving this quilt for me to machine quilt.
THIS quilt, Mimi!
If you still don’t remember it, it is OK. I will keep it!
I love this quilt! It is in my favorite fall colors and I love it! I am even pleased with the quilting. The final border is a little wonky but it works. And now it is done and I can enjoy it. Now to find a place to hang it so I can stare at it at will.
I started this table runner way back in 2009. It is all hand pieced. Yesterday I finished the quilting and the binding.
Here is the deal. I have never put a binding on that wasn’t at right angles. Tune in to tomorrow’s Movie Monday to see how I attached the binding!
I have been trying to quilt this:
As I said, I am not pleased with this quilt. I decided to do an overall stipple and Katie looked at it and said, “You always do the same thing…”
So I picked out three rows of quilting. I had an idea to do a kind of feather idea but to get the effect I wanted. Unfortunately, the border was too wide and I picked all that out…
Difficult to see but imagine LOTS of little threads and holes on the quilt top.
So I am going to meander-but smaller- the borders and put a little design in the blocks. Sorry Katie, but it is going to look the same.
I am beginning to hate this quilt…
On a brighter note, I got some fabrics for my civil war quilt!
Can I tell you that each quarter cost me about $1.50 and the total shipping was $4.50? I am very pleased!
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