Thursday, March 8, 2012

Machine Quilting



I've been working on the quilting of this new quilt for a few weeks, on and off.  It is the Zig Zag quilt pattern by Sweetwater, using their Reunion fabric collection.  I bought it as a kit - love the colors and the geometric, yet nautical feel.  I decided to quilt it using a walking foot and machine stitches, rather than free-motion quilting, which I seem to do most often.  In the long dividing strips I am using straight stitches and also a wavy stitch, a bit hard to see.  In the colored triangles I am using a straight stitch that continues down the rows.  The background triangles get a bit of a triangular spiral.  There are two books out that are wonderful references for quilting using a walking foot, which also means the feed dogs are helping to move things along and keeping the stitches nice and even.  The first book is Foolproof Machine Quilting by Mary Mashuta, and the second is One Line at a Time, Encore, by Charlotte Warr Andersen.  I think I may order the One Line at a Time first book from the local library to see if that is a book I also want to add to my quilting library.  Of course, one of the all time great quilting books is Quilting Makes the Quilt by Barbara Weiland.  Written in 1994, it is out of print, but if you can find one, snap it up!  Great pictures and quilting ideas.  It shows how quilts have a different finished look depending on how they are quilted. Anyone that makes five quilts in the same pattern and fabric and then quilts them all differently, not just for one pattern, but lots(!) deserves a big prize!  Anyway,  Free motion quilting is super fun, and I won't walk away from it, but I am enjoying the process of letting my machine take control.  Jerilynn

3 comments:

  1. The quilt sample shown looks like a "throwback" to Grandma days...antique and well loved. Really lovely.

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  2. Really like the quilt...and the quilting...looks quite old fashioned!

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  3. Thanks for the comments...I will post the final quilt when the stitching is done and I throw it in the washer and dryer to further age and crinkle it!

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