The last post ended with a bit of a cliff hanger. I'm sure you have been asking yourselves, 'What Happened Bernadette?!?' Well, your long-awaited answer is here. Free motion quilting is a lot of fun. As I was going along I began to remember tips that I had read on other websites. Now I know understand what everyone was saying. (These pictures show the back. The quilting shows up much better there)
Here is a list of things that I learned. These are all things that I had heard before but they never made sense until I tried it.
1) Start in the middle and work your way out. I kind of did this but I also left bits (in the middle - that space in between the 'crop circles') that I thought I would go back and do. This is going to be difficult because this middle area now has quilting on all its sides boxing it into a perfect bubble. I'm unsure how to proceed with this.
2) Choose a small pattern so that you can motion freely with small movements. Initially, I decided that these big circular movements would be a great idea. It was not. I had to move the quilt around a lot and this resulted in a lot of tugging, repositioning and therefore lots of little jagged seams instead of smooth motions. The meandering bits in the corners were a whole lot easier to do and the stitching is smoother and more consistent.
3) Pin. Pin. Pin. Then pin some more.
Will definitely be doing more of this next year.
Happy Holidays!
Thank you Michele from Quilt Bloggers for arranging a block drive to make quilts for those effected by Hurricane Sandy. I signed up to make four. And I did and sent them off. Then I thought, 'Come on Bernadette, you can do better than that'. So I made more, and more blocks. Then it became a quilt top. Funny how these things just happen.
I was inspired by (copied the design from) Helen. Thanks Helen!
I'm now going to attempt to quilt it the real way. I had such success with the straight line quilting, how hard can free motion be? I have this special foot that my mom gave me over the summer. I've been too intimidated to take it out of the box. But I just did and I put it on the machine!
Baby steps. There were also two extra pieces in the package.
I'm not sure what they are for. Maybe they are just extras like those miscellaneous bits that come with Ikea furniture. Ok. Here goes.... oh but maybe I'll start in a minute. I really should update this blog first.
That's right. Two posts in two weeks! Today I went to the NYC Metro Mod Guild meeting. It is always so inspiring. I showed my summer challenge quilt (a little bit late); a baby quilt using Thomas Knauer fabrics. I was happy to give it to the Sandy Quilt drive.
It had been brought to my attention that the quilt design resembles a hurricane, and perhaps the recipient might not see any humor in the irony. But the guild concurred that the resemblance wasn't strong enough to worry about.
This was also my first foray into straight line quilting. It was surprisingly easier than I had imagined! I think I'll do a lot more of this.
Update: Here is a link to a photo of me showing the finished product at NYC Metro Mod guild meeting. Thanks for the photo Jess!
In New York mostly. But busy. When there is a spare moment I am faced with the decision. Quilt or blog. Quilting usually wins. Sorry about that dear followers.
I'm sure you are asking yourself, 'Busy? Come on Bernadette, busy doing what?!' Well, first off, my sweet sister had foot surgery. She's fine, thanks for asking. But I have made several pillows for her recovery. Which is going really well (thanks to the pillows).
I especially like this one. I messed the proportions up a little and ran out of room for the 5th toe. Which prompted a discussion about Elaine Zayak. Apparently there are lots of things you can do without all the parts of your foot. This is excellent news for my sister who now only has one of her sesamoid bones.
More soon... (really, I promise.)
I got a new iron! It is light years better than the old travel iron that I had been using. The new one is fantastic and it looks like a spaceship, don't you think?
I'm not sure where the old one came from. I remember taking it to college with me. It was old then. It still works. Kind of. My only complaint is that it drools when it has water in it. So you get big wet patches. But it still makes fabric flat.
I feel that having kept the iron in working order for so long, I am in a position to advise others on how to keep their irons going for years. The secret (in my experience) is to use it sparingly. Ask yourself, do I really need to iron that t-shirt? Probably not. Should I worry about these fold marks in my jeans? no. Does the fabric need to be ironed. Maybe sometimes.
I hope the new iron lasts as long as the old one.
There once were two sisters living in a sunny Brooklyn apartment. The sisters liked open spaces for yoga and dance parties so their small apartment was minimally furnished. But it did have a couch. Much like the sisters themselves the couch came to the apartment by chance. The little black couch was a sidewalk find too perfect to pass up (from a time when bedbugs weren't a major threat). As time went on the perfectly suited couch aged. The springs gradually gave and the cushions sank to the point where sitting down gave you a close-up view of your knees. It had to go.
The sisters looked all over New York for a new couch. Finally they found it. It was perfect. The perfect height, the perfect length, a nice color. It looked fantastic and at a really great price.
The sisters couldn't wait for it to be delivered. Then it was. And they sat on it. (for the first time). Then they realized that you should sit on a couch before you buy it. It was less comfortable than the broken one. Whoops.
By now you are asking yourself, what does this have to do with quilting? And the answer is pillows. They make it slightly more tolerable to sit on. Slightly. But they look great.
UPDATE: Third time's a charm! We finally found a winner. This couch is so comfortable. The best part about the new couch? The upholstery is really ugly. Why is this good news? Because when it is covered in a sheet it makes the pillows stand out. Do you see that there on the left side? That's right, more pillows to cover! Can you tell I'm excited?
In February, Kim, a woman in the NYMod guild was interviewed for the QSOS
project. She talked a lot about the other quilters in her family and
how they collaborated on quilts. Inspired, I went home and called my mom. She was thrilled at the idea. So we started buying fabric. And more fabric and more fabric.
We chose this block. I saw it somewhere online. I'm sure it has a name. We made tons of these.
I mean tons!
We have decided to arrange the blocks so that the whole quilt looks like one big block. Of course this is going to result in one massive quilt. A massive quilt that is sitting in a bag at the moment. But hopefully it will get done this summer. Thanks mom, you rock.
