Quilting Randomly

I finally finished basting my big quilt.

Now I'll have to quilt it. I haven't free-motion quilted anything in a long time so I'm going to do a few warm up projects first. And practice on paper.

I dug this cupcake out of my fabric drawer. It was from the June 2009 quilt shop hop. It's is only 8 inches square. Layering the backing, batting and top and basting took under 5 minutes. I wish they could all be done that quickly.

First, I outlined the cupcake. I am really out of shape for free-motion quilting - the thread broke a few times and the stitch size is way too small.

Then I moved on to the stippling. I started getting more comfortable and the stitch size improved. My hands remembered how to move the fabric to stipple and my brain engaged.

I've been blogging about stitching and knitting randomly and it clicked that stippling is quilting randomly. I do the same random things. If you start repeating the same pattern the stipple doesn't look right - it has to be random.

This isn't random - it's the same thing over and over again. But, I like it and use it in small borders.

Here's an early attempt at stippling.

It's not right. Whenever you find yourself getting into a pattern you have to veer off into another direction or turn and inside loop into an outside loop.

This is getting closer to random. However, I kept working myself into a corner and had to restart.

A little more practice on 2 wall hanging size quilts and by then I should be back in shape.

Comments

More Wildflowers of America

Since I have framed the stitched Bleeding Heart from Curtis Boehringer's Wildflowers of America I decided to track down the other 3 wildflowers that had I stiched earlier. I chose these flowers because they reminded me of the forests of Ohio where I grew up - Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Wake Robin and Bloodroot. The Jack-in-the-Pulpit and Wake Robin where both finished with fabric frames. This was a favorite finishing technique of mine for a long time. On the back they are dated 1999 - that was a while ago. I remember the quilt store where I purchased the fabric, but not its name. It's gone now but it was in an old Victorian house in Old Colorado City. The turrets where lined with bolts of fabric and hey had a great selection of plaids. I had never heard name Wake Robin before and it means nothing to me, but the flower is definitely a Trillium. Back then, I dutifully followed the pattern. Now I would have used the name Trillium ...

Diverted by Dorset Buttons

I learned how to make Dorset Buttons yesterday at our monthly EGA meeting . These little buttons are so much fun to make! We only got three rings so that's how many I made. If I would have gotten more I'd probably be still making them. One nice thing is that they are very forgiving. I made countless mistakes on my first one and you can't tell. A quick google revealed lots of websites with historical information and tutorials on how to make them so I'm not even going to try to describe the process. Some people made their buttons with yarn, others used perle cotton. One of the examples had beads on it, so once I got home I had to find some beads to sew on. That's it for now. I'm going to be keeping my eye's open rings to use. I'm also going to have to go through my yarn stash. Using yarn gives a totally different result and I want to try some yarn ones too.

It's about time - the big reveal

My bright quilt was finished in June but I wanted to wait until both were done before sharing the pictures. Quilting the blue quilt didn't take long but finishing the binding sure did. I did procrastinate a bit as it was too warm to have a huge quilt on my lap for most of the summer. After this, I'll probably do all the binding on my sewing machine (and stick to smaller quilts). Notice the cut-out corners? That was a challenge. I found instructions here and it looked easy enough but I wished I had practiced some. After a lot of finessing I finally got good miters but I could have done much better. The cut-out corners allow the quilt to hang nicely over the edges of the mattress and it's a perfect match for a full sized mattress. But, the top edge isn't even close to the pillows. I wonder how the quilt fit on the bed it was made for. Here, at last, is the original quilt that I was copying. I just...

Erica's Stitches

Search This Blog