I’ve started quilting. I’m stippling this one. I’m finding it physically quite challenging – manipulating all of the fabric and then bits fall of the table and drag on the needle. It is still probably the best part of the quilting process.
Category Archives: Free Motion Quilting
Another Baby Quilt
Another baby is on the way – due at the end of February (not me obviously!).
It is 30 charm squares and a white border. I bought the charm squares ages ago from the Fat Quarter Shop (sorry I can’t remember the name). Everything including the backing and wadding came from my stash (slightly embarrassing that I have so much stock piled).
I just quilted it using my swirly free motion quilting (see picture below).
This time I didn’t lower the feed dogs while doing free motion quilting. I read about it here and thought I would experiment. To be honest I can’t see that it made much difference – I won’t be dropping the feed dogs in future. I did change the stitch length to zero and everything seem to work as normal – there are a few places where my stitches are too big, but that will just get better with practice.
This quilt came together really quickly – about 5 hours so far and all I have left is the binding.
Filed under Fabric Stash, Free Motion Quilting, Quilting
Another Quilt Finished
I finished another quilt. It’s the same pattern as this One. This time I stipple quilted it …
It was much quicker to do than my normal swirly pattern.
I attached the binding to the back and then folded it to the front. The plan being that I would stitch close to the edge of the fold and it would look great and be much quicker than hand sewing. However, it was much harder to sew close to the edge in a straight line. Once again I ended up hiding my dodgy stitching with a decorative pattern!
Filed under Free Motion Quilting, Quilting
Quilt Finished
I finished my quilt – the photo is a bit strange because I laid the quilt on the floor. The pattern is from Two Little Banshees (she has a tutorial).
I just quilted it using a swirly free motion quilting pattern.
Here is the back …
I decided to try machine sewing the binding down (rather than hand sewing the back). My plan was to stitch in the ditch on the front and therefore catch the binding at the back. Good plan? Well it sounds good in theory, but the practice proved to be much harder. In the end I used a decorative stitch to ensure that all of the binding was caught at the back. However, I was happy with the end result. Next time I’m going to machine sew the binding to the back (the reverse of my usual practice) and then machine sew it to the front (as close I can to the fold).
I’ve just started another version of this quilt, but more of that later.
Filed under Free Motion Quilting, Quilting
Quilting
I am busy working on my ‘secret squirrel’ quilt. I’m free-motion quilting in a swirly loopy pattern.
Filed under Free Motion Quilting, Quilting
Quilting is Finished
I finished the quilting – above is the front.
Here is the back …
I thought the front was probably too girly (not sure if it is a girl or boy), so I made the back a bit more boyey.
Filed under Free Motion Quilting, Quilting
Trying to make my loops rounder
When I free-motion quilt I tend to do loops and swirls – it just seems to be my natural style. I’ve been trying to make the loops rounder. I’ve been concentrating on the getting the sewing machine speed and the speed I move the quilt right. Sometimes I have big stitches and sometimes small ones but I am getting better with practice.
This time I’ve also had a bit of trouble with the tension – I’ve tried fiddling with the needle tension, but I haven’t been able to solve the problem completely. Increasing the needle pressure has helped, so I might try altering the tension with increased needle pressure and see what happens.
Filed under Free Motion Quilting, Quilting
Free Motion Quilting
I’ve started quilting this quilt. I’m doing free-motion swirly things (my version of stippling). I’m definitely getting better with practice. I found a supreme slider (it’s a silicon sheet you put between your sewing machine and the quilt – there is a hole for the needle) made things much easier to move the fabric.
Filed under Free Motion Quilting, Quilting