Yesterday was an all day quilting day. Remember that Bright fabrics quilt I was making for a Prayer and Square quilt? The one I wondered if it was too bright for Japanese tastes? It seemed silly to be making a quilt that might be too bright for a Japanese prayer quilt but at the same time to be thinking that my fabric stash wasn't bright enough to make a Thousand Colors quilts. Sooo, I changed my plans and added a few more blocks to make the Bright quilt the right size and I have dubbed it another Thousand Colors quilt for Italy.
I had trouble finding matching border fabric in my stash, the colors were just a little off, but it isn't an impossible fit. Then to quilt. The previous quilt was done with a walking foot and just straight stitch in the ditch. Okay, this will be my machine quilting practice quilt. I checked Patsy Thompson's website and Elaine's blog. Elaine has done some wonderful things on her domestic machine and I knew she considered herself an as yet amateur machine quilter. She insists that the most important thing is PRACTICE. I wanted to try doing overall quilting on a quilt of this size and chose a flowery feather pattern. Then, I spent a few minutes trying to burn the pattern into my brain by drawing it over and over on an white board. Okay. Can I do this? I'm as ready as I'll ever get!
A few adjustments on tension and I took the plunge! Not bad, not bad. Before I'd known it I'd spent three hours at the machine and was afraid to stop!"If I stop now I might get out of the mode and not be able to go back to the uniform swirls and curves! Better to just keep on going!"
Probably not good for the shoulders but by late lunchtime I'd done the overall quilting design.
Back at the sewing machine after a peanut butter sandwich and a long walk with Choco and I started in on the border. Hey, this is fun! I had the whole quilt finished by 4:00 but that still means I must have put nearly 8 hours into quilting this yesterday!
Last night I put the binding on noticing that there are a couple small puckers in the border area backing. I must have pulled a bit too much when quilting the border, and the pins were in my way for quilting this area so I'd already taken them out. Well, I'm not going to repair this. It was an excellent quilt for practicing and I'm quite happy with my beginning attempts! Elaine's right! Just get in there and decide to do it and practice!
25 comments:
It's a wonderful first try! My first try will be Sunday, but it will be mostly stitch in the ditch for a colorful, busy Bear Claws in the Farmhouse.
Tanya, it's GORGEOUS!!! Surely doesn't look like a first attempt at machine quilting. I'm so impressed.
Thanks for your pics...again, it's gorgeous.
Hugs
OH MY GOSH I couldn't be more impressed! I just may have to try this, Tanya! Wow.
Very lovely quilting! I love the colors too.
Tanya, you have such talent! The quilting is beautiful, as is the entire quilt.
Julia (from Sasebo)
Oh my, how brave of you to go for a design straight off, and it looks terrific. I still haven't progressed beyond meandering and loops.
It looks wonderful Tanya!
Verrry nice, Tanya!
wonderful! you are really getting good. I let my daughter do 90% of my quilting on her HQ16, but am thinking it is time for me to try my hand at it. You are encouraging me to get to it.
It's very beautiful! My first machine quilted piece had so many puckers that I wanted to dump it!
It is beautiful. I have the same issues you have - I find it incredibly fun, more fun than a racing video game!, and hard to stop. I worry about making different design when I leave and come back. I imagine there will be a lot more free motion quilts in your future.
Oh, it is gorgeous!!! All I've ever done is straight lines and zigzag when I'm machine quilting! I'm so afraid of ruining my quilt that when I want a special design I hand quilt it!
I might dare after seeing your results... of course, I'm not as experienced as you, so I'm predicting you will not be seeing my first attempts in my post! lol! yours is much too nice!!!
wheee, wonderful job. looks great. yup, practice practice practice
It looks so wonderful, good work! I hope I can do that someday.
Are you serious - that's your first try? It's amazing! You are so talented!
It's fantastic...good for you!
You are now an experienced machine quilter!!
You have done a great job...a real pro. Would you like to quilt one for me? :>)
Liz
It is beautiful Tanya, it is really for a thousand colors?
Your free motion quilting is very nice and you are improving quickly in machine quilting.....
Love, roberta
Wow you did an excellent job of quilting! I really should try to do something like this.
Wonderful!
It looks GREAT!
Beautifully done!! I'm like you...once I start I don't want to stop. If all you've got are a few tucks in the borders then you've done very well. I usually find my tucks in the center!
I just love you're quilting. What type of machine do you have, it's exqusite. I really love your blog.
You did a beautiful job! I usually have to practice drawing for a lot more than a few minutes before heading to the machine with a new design. I'm impressed!
You did a wonderful job! It is fun. After about two years I can start machine quilting without fear I'm going to ruin my quilt!
I took two workshops with Patsy Thompson recently. She's a wonderful teacher. :-)
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