I am going to log my quilts this year, so that I can more easily keep track of what I have quilted and try to do a better job of sharing my quilting patterns, thread combos, and any lessons learned.
Quilt # 1: I started off with a bang in January, when I loaded and quilted this cute wall hanging panel on January 1. It was a fun quick one, and I did loops on it. I used an Omni light blue on the top and a Bottom Line in the bobbin, and they worked well together.
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It wound up having great texture, but boy, was it tedious! Each pass took me about 40 minutes, and by the time I was done, my neck and back would be sore. It took me a month to work through it, and I finally finished it in early February.
The thread combo for this one was Lava and Bottom Line, a good combo. I did have some issues getting the tension just right and wound up loosening both the top and bottom. I also had one bobbin that went a little haywire, so I have about 1/3 of a pass that has some significant pops on the back. I wasn't about to go back and pull out the quilting! Done is better than perfect, right?
When I put the binding on this one at our retreat, my mom loved the quilting pattern. She's made the same top and now she's trying to talk me into doing hers the same way....maybe I will soften over time!
I did decide after finishing this top that the machine needed to be raised up and luckily we were able to get that done without having to take the machine off the frame. I've done one quilt since then and it is significantly better!
So, that's the first two months of the year - more to come soon.
Quilt # 1: I started off with a bang in January, when I loaded and quilted this cute wall hanging panel on January 1. It was a fun quick one, and I did loops on it. I used an Omni light blue on the top and a Bottom Line in the bobbin, and they worked well together.
Quilt #2: Oriental French Braid. I purchased this quilt in a kit the first year I went to retreat in Shipshewana. I got the top started in fall 2012, and finished it a few months after that. It then went into the cabinet with a bunch of other finished tops because I didn't know how I wanted to quilt it. Inspiration finally struck when I started going through Angela Walter's book, Free Motion Quilting with Angela Walters. Originally, I was going to quilt the chrysanthemum-looking flowers just in the border and figure out something different for the braids, but I couldn't think of anything else, so decided to do the flowers all over the top.
It wound up having great texture, but boy, was it tedious! Each pass took me about 40 minutes, and by the time I was done, my neck and back would be sore. It took me a month to work through it, and I finally finished it in early February.
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| Closeup of quilting on the front |
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| Texture on the back |
I did decide after finishing this top that the machine needed to be raised up and luckily we were able to get that done without having to take the machine off the frame. I've done one quilt since then and it is significantly better!
So, that's the first two months of the year - more to come soon.
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