About a year ago, a new Schnibbles pattern was released called "Jacks." I liked it from the first time I saw it and thought I might make a wall quilt for my Jack. That hasn't happened yet, but I did get one made for our family room. I decided shortly before retreat that I wanted to make a new wall quilt for the wall above our couch - I had two that I rotated - one Valentine's and one for the rest of the year. I really wanted a few more choices for that wall. I prepped my kit and took it to retreat, where I got the whole top done in a day (why we retreat, part 2 -- this quilt would have taken me weeks to put together if I'd done it in the evenings and weekends at home).
I want to tell you about my favorite new tool that I used in the construction of this quilt to speed things up. It is a vinyl cling that you put on the top of your machine bed that helps you feed in pieces that need to be sewn on a diagonal - think half square triangles, flying geese, etc. I bought it several months ago and hadn't taken the time to pull it out and use it, but I thought retreat would be a great opportunity. I did some other work with it first, then used it for all the pieces in the middle of this top. It took a little practice to be even, but I love it! The nicest part is that it is easy to pull up when you run out of bobbin thread, and then it goes right back into place. Here's a picture of what it looks like - you can either find it at your local quilt shop or at New Leaf Stitches. I paid $10 for mine and it was worth every penny just for this project. I plan to use it a lot more in the future!
As soon as I got home, I found some good fabric for the back and loaded it on the frame. I quilted it with a stipple all over and used Isacord thread in the top and bottom line in the bobbin. It was a great combination and sits really nicely on the quilt.
Over the past couple days I have stitched down the binding. Just need to stitch down the hanging sleeve and it will be ready to brighten my family room! It has been named "Lovely Jacks" to represent both the name of the pattern and the fabric line used in the top.
I want to tell you about my favorite new tool that I used in the construction of this quilt to speed things up. It is a vinyl cling that you put on the top of your machine bed that helps you feed in pieces that need to be sewn on a diagonal - think half square triangles, flying geese, etc. I bought it several months ago and hadn't taken the time to pull it out and use it, but I thought retreat would be a great opportunity. I did some other work with it first, then used it for all the pieces in the middle of this top. It took a little practice to be even, but I love it! The nicest part is that it is easy to pull up when you run out of bobbin thread, and then it goes right back into place. Here's a picture of what it looks like - you can either find it at your local quilt shop or at New Leaf Stitches. I paid $10 for mine and it was worth every penny just for this project. I plan to use it a lot more in the future!
Comments
I have that Clearly Perfect Angles thing. Or I did and I never used it. I am not sure if I put it in the TO GO pile when I moved the rooms around... I will have to look for it.