Quilting

I thought I'd try an all-over arc design on this. It was so easy it was fun. And fast!

I started with only one arc marked, in yellow chalk, you might be able to see about halfway down from the top right corner, below. I used a tack in the corner, a string, and my yellow chaco-liner. My first line of stitching was on that yellow line, then I stitched inward and outward from there, using the guide on the walking foot.

These shots show off the quilting a little better.

 

The back is flannel.  Still a little stiff looking as its unwashed at this point.

 

Here it is, washed up and nicely crinkled.

This really was a quick and easy way to quilt this, with practically zero marking. I will definitely be using this technique again.


Still in the mood for large arcs, I decided to do it on my little scrap quilt, and try out the "hand quilting" stitch on my Janome at the same time.

The idea is, you use the thread color you want to show in the bobbin, and "invisible" thread on the top. I chose 100% polyesther by Superior Threads, thinking it would be stronger and have less stretch than the nylon I have used in the past. Really, it wasn't much different.

While I really like the resulting look, the process was a little frustrating. You have to increase your top tension - somewhere between 6 and 7 on my machine - in order to pull the bobbin thread up to the top. Any lower won't pull the bobbin thread up. Any higher and the top thread breaks. And then you also have to sew     r  e  a  l  l  y    s  l  o  w    to keep your top thread  from breaking. Even with that, the thread still broke at least twenty times and being "invisible" you can barely see the damn stuff, making it a royal pain to have to keep re-threading the needle.  This little 12 x 18" "doll" quilt took me as long to quilt as the 36" x 48" star quilt shown above! In the future I may go back to the nylon thread, and see if that works any better.

Kinda cool looking though, huh? And still  a fraction of the time it would have taken to hand quilt it, with no stress on my hands. I'm really hoping I can get the hang of this stitch, for future use.

 

Meanwhile, I was going to try some FMQ on this one, but lost my nerve.  I ended up sticking with my usual "petal" motif, or what is sometimes called "orange peel" tho I could never figure out why.

It could actually be reversible. I might even like this side better!

Sorta goes with the painting, don't you think?











Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Love,
Sandy