Machine Quilting – Sharp Wavy Stippling

June 6, 2012March 19, 20134 Comments

My Summer House charm pack quilt is finally finished! Well, it’s not mine anymore – I gave it to my sister in law for her new baby girl due this summer. Cresen is very lucky because I made her 2 quilts in one year! I finally made her wedding quilt this spring, although she’s been married for a couple of years now. You can see pictures of her wedding quilt here.

Be sure to click on the pictures below for closeups of the front and back of this cute quilt.

I was really pleased with how the machine quilting turned out on this quilt. I tried some new tools that really made the process much easier.

First, I attached a Supreme Slider to the bed of my sewing machine. This thick slippery plastic material reduces the friction on the bottom side of the quilt and significantly improves the whole free-motion quilting process. With less drag, it’s much easier to glide the quilt around and get good quality stitches.

Next, I used a pair of Machingers machine quilting gloves. They are very comfortable and I can even thread the machine while wearing them.

They gave me a better grip on the quilt. Pushing the bulk of the quilt through the bed of the machine was much easier, too, making the whole experience more enjoyable.

I wanted to try another version of stippling – sharp wavy stippling, inspired by Leah Day’s free-motion quilting project. Instead of doing a simple meander, I quilted wavy lines, ending in a point and coming back down. I also used more of a contrasting thread so you can see it.

This was the first time I free-motion quilted in an orderly fashion – stitching one block at a time – then moving onto the next block in rows (rather than randomly every which way all over the quilt). I like the progress I made and the interesting texture. It reminds me of flames or waves, depending on which way you look at it. See above and below for closeups.

I like branching out with my machine quilting. I’m happy drawing and quilting marked lines, but the random n0-mark free-motion fillers give me more flexibility with my designs.

Stipple Practice

April 19, 20126 Comments

I’ve decided it’s ok to doodle on fabric. I love to machine quilt but sometimes I’m in between projects so that’s when I love to play with scraps of muslin and just go to town!

I keep a bunch of scraps on hand so I can mess around with thread, tension, and batting before I move onto my quilt. I can mark a motif with a stencil and see how it will stitch up.

I tried pebbles, free-form feathers, paisleys, wavy lines, and – oh yeah – stippling! I wanted to see if I could get a trapunto effect by quilting a motif and filling in the background.

If I see a design I want to try, I just grab a scrap and quilt away. I called this post stipple practice but it’s really a good idea to try out ANY design on a “fabric sandwich” first.

How a bout a touch of color – what will that look like? These little pieces are for nothing but my own pure enjoyment. They are fun to look at when I want a visual feast and I plan on incorporating the designs into quilts in the future. Whew, that was fun!

Finished Hearts and Feathers Wholecloth Quilt

April 15, 2012March 19, 2013Leave a comment

I’ve been having a blast making my Hearts and Feathers Wholecloth quilt with Leah Day & her quilt-along crew over at The Free Motion Quilting Project. I’m happy to say it’s finished!

I blogged about this a couple of weeks ago when I finished the quilting but wanted to add a few more of the step by step pictures showing how I made the quilt.

I used my lightbox to trace the paper pattern onto my red batik fabric. I was amazed at how well I could see through the dark fabric!

I taped down the paper pattern underneath so it wouldn’t shift. Then I made sure to line it up very carefully when I needed to move the light.

My next investment: a bigger lightbox!! (This was late at night so I was wearing my comfy-cozies!!)

This was my first time soaking and blocking a quilt. Completely drenching it in a tub of water easily removed the marks and starch I had applied previously.

I let it dry out between a couple of towels for about a day and a half. It hangs super flat!

For a larger quilt I would tumble it in the dryer for a little while first.

To make the quilt hang square, I used a large square up ruler to trim the edges. I used the outline of the motifs as a guide. I made sure to stipple around the quilt more than I needed so that I could trim off any excess microstippling and it would be completely quilted.

For the machine quilting, I used a very thin polyester thread in the top and bobbin, but I hand-bound it with cotton. I like to have the same colors in different thread types so I can mix and match when needed. I love this quilt!

Batik Double Wedding Ring Quilt

April 10, 2012March 19, 20134 Comments

Here is the double wedding quilt I made for my husband’s sister Cortney. (I blogged about the other sister’s wedding quilt last week). It was a learning curve for me in so many ways. It was the first quilt I sewed using curves! I also learned a ton about machine quilting and marking.

I think every quilter should make at least one double wedding ring quilt as a sort of right of passage. I made this quilt using a precut Quilt Kit from Benartex. This made the top go together easily. The pieces were notched so I could match the seams with lots of pins.

The blocks were sewn a few at a time in partial rows. Melon pieces filled in the edges.

For the machine quilting, I wanted to try a few new things. I stitched around all of the pieced blocks near the ditch with a decorative serpentine stitch. Then I used a washout marking pencil and a stencil to mark a heart motif in each of the block centers. I used a heavyweight variegated thread for the centers and filled in the backgrounds with black metallic thread from Superior Threads.

To get out all of my markings, I filled a small bowl with water and used a toothbrush to scrub them out. It worked pretty well I think. Because this fabric has so much black, the batting bearded a little and I had to use a lint roller on it (next time – black batting!!)

I named this quilt Los Novios (The Lovers) because of the backing fabric. My sister in-law loves the Alexander Henry Day of the Dead fabric so I thought it was a perfect match for the back! When I entered this quilt in a show recently, the quilt judge loved it until she saw the backing. She didn’t think it was appropriate for this quilt, but my sister-in-law absolutely loves it and that’s what’s most important!

Hearts and Stars Wedding Quilt

April 6, 2012March 19, 20131 Comment

I recently made wedding quilts for my husband’s two sisters. The first one I’m blogging about today was for his sister Cresen who got married about two years ago. (I’ll show pictures of the other one next week.) I titled this one simply Hearts and Stars.

I made the blocks in a quilting class years ago but was never quite sure what to do with them. When Cresen got married they matched her home decor nicely!

Both sisters are really into the Day of the Dead theme, so of course I had to include that fabric on the back. This red fabric is from Alexander Henry, called “Paseo De Los Muertos”. An alternate title for this quilt could be “Americana De Los Muertos.”

For the star quilting I made a template out of a sticky label and stitched around the outside edges. I also added lots of micro-stippling for texture. Click the pictures to see closeups.

For the borders, I played around with some loopy stitching and used a stencil to mark a double-wedding ring motif around the outer border. It took5 hours to mark the outer border and 4 hours to quilt it. But I was loving every minute of it! I used wool batting because it seems to show of the quilting more. I quilted it with Superior Threads Highlights TriLobal polyester (40 weight) in the top with matching Bottom Line thread in the bobbin. I changed threads to match the fabrics so the texture would show, rather than the stitches.

Here it is hanging up in a my guild’s quilt show. Alas, it did not win a ribbon because there were so many other more beautiful quilts in the show. But my sister in-law was happy to receive it and I was thrilled to get in more free-motion machine quilting practice!

Free Motion Quilt Along With Leah Day

April 3, 2012April 4, 201212 Comments

I’m so excited to tell you about a fantastic machine quilter I just learned about. Her name is Leah Day and she offers the most wonderful machine quilting tutorials on her blog. And the best thing is she wants to share! So below is the first quilt I’ve made using her tutorials:

This is a heart and feather wholecloth wallhanging designed by Leah Day. This was such a growing piece for me to make for many reasons. First of all, it really got me excited about making quilting a priority in my life. Second, I go to play around with many different tools and elements involved with machine quilting: marking tools, using a lightbox and experimenting with threads. Finally, it gave me the confidence that I really can quilt the heck out of something and enjoy it! The picture above is actually the back side of the quilt.

Here’s a picture of the front of the quilt showing the marks in blue washable pen. I stitched slowly enough that I was able to follow the marks accurately. The pen marks will wash out leaving nothing but beautiful quilting! This is the first time I have quilted a quilt where the back looks just as good as the front and I was able to stay on the lines the entire time.

I used a red Hoffman Batik fabric on both sides and quilted it with matching Superior Threads bottom line thread (60 weight polyester) in the top and bobbin. I used a wool batting, outlined the hearts and feathers, then microstippled between the spaces to give a “faux-trapunto” look. I took the plunge and actually buried my thread on all of my stops and starts and it really wasn’t as time consuming as I thought it would be. I used one of Leah’s hints and did NOT drop my feed-dogs while free motion quilting. Instead I covered them using a special mat called a Supreme Slider. I feel like the tension was more perfect this way.

Overall, I am thrilled with this piece and can’t wait to get to more machine quilting. It is my favorite part of making a quilt!

Leah has generously shared the pattern to make this wholecloth here on her blog:

The Free Motion Quilting Project

Be sure to also check out Leah Day’s 365 Days of Free Motion Quilting. You’ll be glad you did!

The Lorax Quilt

March 30, 2012March 19, 20133 Comments

My mom recently made this cute Lorax quilt from a Robert Kaufman Dr. Seuss kit she got from me. One of the special privileges of being my mom is that she gets first dibs on anything I have in the shop! It took her less than a week to make, from start to finish.

Here’s a detail showing the allover stippling she used to complete the quilting. She tweaked the pattern slightly so that the filler blocks would be complete checkerboards.

The kit actually comes in two different colors: “Bright” and “Earth”.

Mom made the quilt for my sister’s new baby boy!

Mini Baltimore Album Quilt

March 27, 2012March 19, 20133 Comments

Today I wanted to share pictures of a miniature Baltimore Album Quilt I made recently, for my quilting guild’s miniature quilt auction as part of our quilt show held earlier this month.

I love machine applique and lots of machine quilting so I combined both to make this little quilt, measuring approximately 20 inches square. Here’s a closeup of the back where you can see the quilting a little bit better.

My friend and show auctioneer Georgi bid on and won this quilt for a friend of hers for her birthday. I was very pleased that this quilt was the highest selling mini quilt (it made up for the fact that I didn’t win any ribbons on my other entries, but more about that later!) The quilting shows up better in this picture I think.

For the applique, first I appliqued all of the blocks, matching my thread colors as close as possible to the fabric.

I used Superior silk thread for most of the applique because it’s very thin and blends well. I didn’t mind switching threads at all.

Once blocks were sewn, I added the swags and appliqued them as well before basting and quilting. I use an open-toe foot to see where I’m going.

This quilt was actually a remake of a quilt I made about 10 years ago for myself. It’s taken me that long to make another! The original quilt had more blocks with different sashing.

I used a busy back and appliqued the same time that I quilted.

My techniques are much better now!

Ginkgo Tonals Quilt

March 23, 2012March 19, 20131 Comment

Here’s another beautiful quilt top made by one of my talented customers, Marcia N from Indiana, posted with her permission.

She used the 19 piece fat quarter bundle of Gingko Tonals, plus 1/2 yard of dark inner border (2″ finished) and 1 3/4 yards outer border (6″ finished) to make this sparkling quilt top. She cut each of the fat quarters into 4 equal pieces to create her blocks, then laid them out in a brick pattern. Way to go Marcia!

Cats Charity Quilt

March 22, 2012March 19, 20132 Comments

I just love it when people send me photos of their finished projects (especially using fabric they purchased from me). It’s fun to see such talent out there, plus it gives me more interesting things to write about when I’m between projects myself. Today I’m showing an adorable kitty cat quilt made by Susan O from Israel, shown with her permission.

Susan loves to make quilts to give away to those in need. This cute cat quilt was given to a Bedouin Arab worker’s 1st child. She recently ordered some fabric from me to ship to a US crafty charity as a donation; it was the same price to buy and donate fabric from the US as it would have been for her to go through her stash and ship it from home. I’m glad I can help!