Wednesday 27 May 2015

FMQ Wednesday

First at all...thank you so much for commenting on my recent post 'Am I killing my quilt'. That was fantastic. Each and everyone is, of course, right ...(and here comes the 'however')...

However, I have decided to start again!! Yes, you read right...I was sewing along and accidentally sewed part of my backing to the quilting, so had to undo a section. While I was undoing that part, I started to really examine my quilting, the backing etc. I actually have bought quite an expensive and nice backing for the quilt, so I started to think that this was a pity not turning out the way I had imagined it...I already had noticed that the top was slipping and sliding during quilting due to the movement of the FMQ. I have been using a Hobbs Tuscany Wool batting for the first time...it's absolutely lovely, however I believe it needed to be stabilised first before doing an overall design. Without that blasted SITD there was actually too much movement, even though I had basted this fairly well. So I was left with these puffed out seams and odd poofy areas...so, in the end I decided to start again. I will undo this and re-baste the quilt, then SITD around the main blocks and then have another look at how to quilt this.
Yep, bit of a setback particularly as I thought I could just overlook this and put it down to experience. In the end, I thought it was a pity to wreck the whole quilt. This is going to take me a while!

Anyway, apart from this I have been doing a lot of planning and a lot of internet surfing. I have decided on two Wholecloth quilts that I would like to do, one of them being the class sample in Cindy Needham's Craftsy class 'Wholecloth Quilts'. Thinking about this, I also started exploring silk as this has been something that I had wanted to try out for a long time. Given that I have no experience with silk, I started looking on the net for Dupion Silk and finally purchased a tiny piece of silk for a few dollars on Ebay to have a bit of a look at how this felt and how the stitching looked on this. Not sure why, but I had always imagined this to be difficult, something that needed a greater amount of experience etc...

Cindy Needham uses Kimono Silk thread (wt100) in her class for parts of the quilt and provided an excellent discussion of various types of threads in the class. Well, today my little sample arrived, so in the absence of any silk thread I went and bought Invisafil wt100 thread to try to stitch on this. I was really curious to see what such a thin thread would look like on the fabric.

As you can see this is a very small piece which will need to last me for a few trials of different threads, so I just stitched this little wreath in one corner. I must say, I am impressed...absolutely loved the feel of the silk. It is fairly firm and was a pleasure to stitch on. Also, was way easier to mark the design on with my blue water soluble marker. Obviously it was not secured properly being such a small piece, so that I have some fullness in parts.  I used two layers of what looked like cotton batting in my leftovers. The thread is actually quite amazing. Being the frugal  (haha...) person I am, I bought a light beige thread, so that I could use it for SITD (for stabilization) or similar if I was going to have problems.
My settings for the Pfaff QE 4.2 were:
Dynamic Freemotion mode with the Dynamic 6D Freemotion foot
Tension: 3.4
Needle: 60/8
Same thread in bobbin.

I can now see what people are saying about the wt100 thread...it just blends in and even though I stitched with a different coloured thread, it is hardly noticeable in the sample. This, of course, makes the backtracking a pure joy. I like to backtrack in my feathers anyway, but with this thread you really cannot see this at all. It just seems to disappear into the fabric. This I really like on the silk.

I am going to try to make my next cushion for the 2015 FMQ Challenge over at Quiltshopgal out of silk (if I can find a suitable piece on the web) to get a bit more practice and then invest in some silk fabric for one of the Wholecloths.

Very excited about this little trial.

Karin

2 comments:

  1. I think this looks gorgeous, the sheen from the fabric makes the quilting look amazing. Mind you that is the norm with your quilting but the fineness of the fabric makes it look very luxurious. I think further investment in silk is a must!

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  2. I have not tried quilting on silk yet...it is on the someday list. Invisifil has been a go-to favorite thread for years. Love the stuff!

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