Anyway, I mentioned wanting to go ahead and machine quilt some quilts, rather than poke along with my hand quilting on everything. Not that I'm giving up hand quilting - I love it too much to do that! - but it would be nice to have a few more finishes under my belt instead of just flimsies. It turns out she's been teaching free motion quilting, so she gave me some pointers and a pep talk.
On Saturday, I put on my big girl panties and gave it a try. I changed the needle, I dropped the feed dogs, I fiddled with the tension, and I doodled all over a little quilt sandwich I had made for that purpose. I had fun, but I definitely need to do more practice before I actually use free motion quilting on a real quilt.
So, the feed dogs came back up and I gave the wavy stitch on my machine a try.
I really like the way it turned out! And I love the fact that I had quilted a whole quilt in a matter of just hours!
Yesterday I sewed the binding onto the front and today I hand stitched it down to the back.
A finish! This one has to be a record for me - I started this project on Labor Day, just 16 days ago!
Time to get my Charlie Brown Quilt ready for quilting, I guess.
10 comments:
Wow! That must be a record! Nice quilting too...
Fun quilt! Congrats on a finish!
Beatuiful! Love how colorful it is!
Love the color and motion in this quilt. I like to use the serpentine - I think it adds to the movement of this design. Congrats!
Love it. Speedy and beautiful!
Dafi
Ooooohhhhhh! I love that wavy stitch. I need to check to see if I have that one on my machine! That would open up a whole new world of COMPLETED PROJECTS to me!! hahaha!
I took 3 FM classes, years ago. It was boring. I keep thinking that I need to try it again. I can do some straight line quilting with the machine.
Beautiful quilt! And machine quilting is perfect for getting those quilts finished and on their way. I think hand quilting should only be done with 10 or so of your best friends, gathered around a quilting frame with lunch simmering away on the stove (or in the crock pot). But that's just me.
I am so proud of you for going outside your comfort zone and trying something new. The quilt is gorgeous and it is nice to have a finish. You can still continue to hand quilt, but machine quilting helps move projects to the finish stage.
For a first try, it looks down-right spectacular. Good doing!
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