Monday, January 10, 2011

Quilting practice

Before I tackle any of my pieced quilts, I wanted to practice my free-motion quilting. So I cut out a couple of 20" diameter circles and "sketched with thread". I think I'm improving - the machine was acting great with no snags or bad stitches on the underside. One of the things that I paid attention to was slowing down - that made a big difference.



I also tried out the water-soluble marker, which worked amazingly (hence the dark areas on the quilt; the fabric was wet when I took the photos. Ironically, I didn't use any of the markings for the quilting, as I wasn't happy with what I drew. So this design was completely spontaneous while I was quilting. I used some cheap poly batting scraps I had laying around, but doubled to give the piece some loft and make the feathers and larger shapes "pop".









I'll be finishing the binding at the guild meeting tonight, and at the Garden State Quilters' show in May, this little quilt will be in the "little wishes" raffle (we raffle off a lot of small quilts during the show). I may also display it at the Harvest Quilter's show in March, depending on what's finished in my show queue.

4 comments:

  1. Great job! I cant find the article... but will and then will send you the link in case you need it ... well you probably already know that spools of thread (they were talking fancy metallics etc but I think it would apply across the board) work through your machine heaps better if they are cross wound NOT stacked. You are doing a fine job but I thought I would share... this is something new for me. It is dumb luck that I always use a thread that is cross wound on the spool! Good luck with all your artistic adventures. Maretta

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  2. @Maretta, thanks! I'm now using Connecting Threade "Essentials", which happen to be cross-wound. I didn't think that would make a difference.

    If I'm trying specialty threads, I've started putting them in a mug behind the machine instead of using the spool holder (it's a much cheaper alternative to those "spool holders" you can find online). This idea was from soneone on the quiltingboard.com forum

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  3. Thanks for the mug idea; I would not have thought of using a mug to hold my thread.

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  4. You're welcome.

    We have so many mugs in our house it's ridiculous. And it's a way to save a mug you really like but is no longer capable of holding liquid, when you already have enough pencil/pen holders :)

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