Quilting techniques

Yesterday I spent the whole day looking through patchwork books and the Internet for a quilting design to use on the When-oh-When quilt. I really agonized my choices and finally decided I was being way too perfectionist and that things didn't have to match and tie together. I finally just decided and spent a couple of hours getting the pattern onto the quilt.

How do you put a quilting pattern on a top? Am I still in the dark ages? I trace the chosen pattern onto paper and go over it again with a black felt pen. I pin the traced pattern to the underside of the top and then retrace it to the quilt itself. Yesterday I was relieved that the fabric was light enough so that I didn't have to hold the quilt up to a window and do all my tracing, but sometimes I do that too. (No lightbox.) I use a soft pencil to do my tracing too, not one of the fade/wash away quilting pens that mark in blue or purple. I have a feeling this is an old-fashioned way but it's the way my quilting friends and I have always done it.

Actually I was thinking a lot about quilting in general as I searched for a pattern yesterday.

"Pattern, pattern. Don't bother to look in any of my American books and magazines, not that many patterns for hand quilting."

If I want a good selection of quilting patterns then Japanese books have a lovely assortment. One reason for this is because machine quilting isn't very popular in Japan yet. My friend Noriko-san is a pioneer of machine quilting here in Japan but I think she's been misunderstood all these years. Japanese quilters tend to look at machine quilting and think "Hmm. That's not real quilting, that's just a speed process." they don't give the technique fair consideration.

For awhile I tended to side with that train of thought too until I saw Noriko-san's lovely work and decided that before I bash it I need to try it. Last year I ordered machine quilting books and got some first-hand instruction from Noriko-san and tried my hand (or in this case, my machine). Wow! The skill that machine quilting takes, and the beautiful work one can do if you are skilled (which I am still not)! My whole attitude toward machine quilting changed! (gold quilt done by Noriko-san)

Another rarely heard of process in Japan is long-arm quilting. Do you know I have never seen a long-arm machine or ever met anyone in Japan who has ever done it or even knows of someone who does long-arm quilting. (Of course I live in the back woods of Japan.) This may be because the machines are so big that there is no place to put them in a quilting shop let alone a home (no basements in Japan) but it may also be because Japanese quilters still think hand-quilting is the only genuine method of quilting.

Anyway, after long deliberation I decided I will hand quilt my When-oh-When quilt just because I've not developed the skills yet to do a good job machine quilting it on my domestic machine. I know, I know. In order to develop those skills I need to do it more but not right now. Someday what I'd really like to do is send one of my quilts out to be long-arm quilted just so I can have one in my possession and some day I want to just give a long-arm a try just to understand how it really works!

Next step. Basting!