And then there's the quilting... I think it’s super that some people are able to do beautiful work on their home sewing machine but I’m not one of them. This year though, I had planned (again) to quilt a few more quilts myself. And I've got a couple of quilts all layered & pin basted ready for machine quilting, but here we nearly at the end of September and I've not spent any time quilting!
Anyway, in a mad moment this weekend, I decided I'd give machine quilting another go. No, no, not FMQ as I really struggle with that! I was thinking more along the lines of lots of "organic" texture.
This is a quilt that I pieced years ago, some of you may remember it, where I combined some early Liberty lawn fabrics with a solid cream/white cotton, {wink wink} I hadn't given the quilting any thought when I decided on that cream!
I have zero skills or tricks to share as far as how to machine quilt anything.
My main concerns here were choosing line patterns where I didn't have to turn the quilt every few inches, and ensuring I was all set up so that the drag of the quilt didn't send me off kilter. Oh, and getting it all finished before my pins rusted! {Many thanks to Yvonne
@quiltingjetgirl for all your
+ve advice}.
For the quilting, I really wanted something to add some texture to all those cream -ve spaces. My goal was not to ruin the quilt top with my quilting.
I decided on simple, straight lines, mimicking all of the straight lines in the quilt. I made the lines different in each open space, anywhere between 1/4" - 3"ish? apart, those lines definitely got wider apart as I worked my way out to the edges!
I treated each little area as a practice run, and if something didn't work, I didn't do it again. Basically just making it up as I went along really.
… and I must say
… I'm really ok with these organic quilting lines!
Here's a few things I learnt while stitching away:
- This turned out to be a super quick and easy process, why did I put if off for so long?
- Organic straight lines are so fun! Especially since there's no pressure to keep them perfectly straight.
- My first few blocks ended up with slight peaks in the middle, so I reversed things and started in the middle and worked my way out... Quilting101 right!
- It's certainly easier to focus on quilting small areas one at a time, like those 7" squares. BUT I ended up with heaps of threads to bury!
- On chatting more with MrD - we had a lo-o-ong conversation about $$ v time spent - I've now worked out, it would have been heaps easier & quicker to simply travel along a seamline to get over to the next spot! Wished I'd thought of that yesterday!
- While stitching long vertical lines from edge to edge is time consuming, it could be more practical from the point of view of burying those thread ends into the binding, yes? Something I'll definitely consider on my next quilt too.
- I'm thinking lots of simple and functional lines of stitching rather than decorative quilting is the way for me to go in the future!
Quilt details:
"Liberty Love"
Cotton batting to add that snuggle factor!
The backing was a big piece of vintage fabric I found in town at a 'sallie amani' shop,
I'm unsure what sort of fabric it actually is, it's softer than a cotton.
I finished the quilt with a black & white stripe for the binding,
love the contrast with those itty bitty busy Liberty lawns
Machine quilted by me
Finished quilt measures: 60" x 52"
Still threads to trim & bury, but I was so excited to share!
- linking up with Cyndy for 'oh scrap'
here
If you managed to read right through to the end, thanks for not zoning out!
And because it's always fun to hear from you... what is your "go to" quilting design?
Linda
