Baptist Fan Quilting...The Fearless Way!

So I continued to quilt a Baptist Fan design over one of the charity quilts using the Baptist Fan templates from Michael Quilts.

Not having done it for a while I forgot to secure my templates with some extra grip. While I have got the normal grippy things on the back of the templates, sometimes you just need a  little bit more grip. For that I use a material that one uses for drawers or sometimes under carpets. I just cut myself some small pieces that I place under the template so it does not move around as I go around the template.

I only started doing that after about the second row so my rows were already starting to be a bit out of shape. Having done this though a number of times by now I do know it will all work out in the end (that's why I called the post 'fearless quilting'). Trust your ability to fudge correctly a bit here and there to get the rows in line with the row underneath, no matter what the template points to in the current row.

I was out with most of my rows by anything up to a 1/4in which was annoying but there was not much I could do to get that exact anymore other than fudge the alignment of the template over the row. My rows were also starting to wander off to the left a bit, however that was alleviated by turning the quilt around and quilting from right to left. 

It got done though...not exact and definitely not consistent, but in the end looking at it you would not notice unless, of course, somebody comes along and follows individual fans all across the quilt. I quilted the fans in a thread colour that matched the blue/green rectangular shapes and it just blended in.

The final result...in progress

...and finished (in daylight!)

Was very happy with the outcome..the design spells consistency due to the consistent spacing of the arcs. The discrepancies from one row to the next, i.e. whether they are exactly aligned is a different matter. This design though fits this quilt really well and offsets the strong angular lines beautifully.

Always an adventure quilting the Baptist Fan over a slightly larger quilt!

Karin

New Listing - The Large Throw Sized Quilt in Bold Colours

Had a request the other week as to whether I could extend my Colourful Geometric Baby Quilt Pattern to Throw Size.

So I sat down and started doing that last week thinking that this would be a quick and easy update on the original pattern. Not so...as it turned out I had to completely re-work the pattern, making the blocks bigger but also change the whole layout around a bit. As this is a custom layout that took a while to get right in terms of colours and shapes.

So here it is: Large Trow Sized Quilt Pattern in very bold colours

It comes to 64-1/2in x 72-1/2in, so quite large...it is made of different types of simple shapes in a custom layout. Very easy to do though and will come together quickly given the block sizes. The pattern comes as a PDF instant download and includes detailed instructions, including lots of diagrams on how to put this together. 

Head to my Etsy shop if you are interested in this pattern. 

Karin

A bit of Ruler Quilting

For the last charity quilt I did not feel like anything major and decided to just put an allover meander over it. Then I remembered having watched an Amanda Murphy video on FB where she uses the Star template to spruce up her meander. Decided to give that a go to make it a bit more interesting and to see how this would flow when doing the meander. 

I used the 2-1/2in Star shape

Here it is in action

As you can see I have the needle in but the foot up while moving the template in. I am always very careful with rulers as I don't want to hit the ruler by mistake. I only lower the foot once the template is in the middle...only then do I position the template into place.

The meander with the Star template was much easier then I thought. Did not give me any issues at all in terms of quilting the overall meander. Fitted nicely into the overall scale. Not that you can see much of it on this scrappy quilt, but I know it is there 😀

Onto the next charity quilt...

This is a bigger quilt and as usual I basted it first before doing anything else.

Contemplated my thread choice for a long time...in the end I decided to run with the blue colour of the rectangles. Also laboured over the quilting choices as I am a bit busy with other things at the moment and still got another 4 charity quilts to complete after that. I have got about a week to complete this before visitors arrive from overseas! In the end though the quilt won...I think it wants an allover Baptist Fan design! This is going to take a while but the quilt is perfect for this design. The bottom edge is nice and straight and also the local group gave me cotton batting for some of the quilts in this lot, so it is very flat...really enjoying quilting on cotton for a change as the charity quilts usually come with wool batting.

So I made a start today using my fantastic Baptist Fan Rulers again. Can't recommend the Baptist Fan rulers from Michael Quilts enough! I do think that they are the best on the market. The set I have has 1in spacing which I enjoy as it takes up a lot of space (3in, 5in, 7in, 9in and 11in template). On the sitdown of course the size can be somewhat challenging but if you take your time, go slow and deliberate it is all do-able. I have done a number of quilts now with these templates and still think they are the best thing since sliced bread.

So nice!

Apart from this I am still working on my scrappy log cabin quilt...I am up to 65 blocks...only 5 more to go. Must say that I lost my mojo for this. It would have been easier to just use 1-1/2in strips for this rather than strips of all sizes. At times I had difficulties judging my strips to get to the right end measurement of the block which at times was a hassle. Happy to say though it has made a noticeable dent in the strip department.

Also have been doing some quilt pattern work and promptly started another design for an Eye-Spy Quilt. I have got this stack of fabric that needs putting together but I do not want just a traditional squares quilt. Lots more work to be done on that before I can actually start on this

...and I got so many of those 😬

So, no time to waste...got lots to do!

Karin

Edge-to-Edge Quilting

Have finished another charity quilt, this time though with an edge-to-edge design. Could not resist, using the beautiful 'Ambrosia' design by Hermione Agee. It is a feather design about 6.5in wide. Given that I am now back on the sit down machine I had to use my trusted Golden Threads paper to draw this one out, row by row, then align each row to the next and slowly working my way across the quilt. This is probably where I most miss the frame...really enjoyed that on the frame. Mind you there is equally lots of alignment that you have to do on a frame. I feel the real difference is in the time it takes to take all that paper out of the quilt which I usually do as I go along. The stitching out takes very little time as the design is bigger and flowing nicely with bigger open curves so you do quilt them in BSR1 with a little bit of speed. 

The charity quilt lent itself beautifully to this design. Old-fashioned floral type fabrics in a simple railroad like set up.

Also, this quilt had cotton batting for a change which I really enjoyed.

Some closeups

And then I got side tracked...

Started knitting a little jumper for the grandchild. As so often with me I had my heart set on a top down rolled collar jumper pattern. You can find that pattern on Ravelry under Top Down Roll Raglan by Melinda Goodfellow.

I used to be a very prolific knitter when I was younger, so went ahead to re-work the whole pattern to suit my wool which had a different gauge. This took me ages to do...

Started knitting...this is really quite an easy jumper to knit, but boy I am out of practice. It is knitted top down, then split for the arms and continued in the round, so really very simple. When it came to the arms I started to have some issues with having big unsightly holes from the stitches stretching. Was not impressed and had to re-do this a number of times. Also had to use DPNs for the arms which was a bit of a hassle as the arms were so small. Lucky I had done some sock knitting in recent years, so at least that part worked out well.

Eventually though this got done and came out very cute. Even my sizing almost worked out. I was aiming for a 2 yr old jumper but with my re-calculations it came out at a maybe 18 mths old jumper, so the child will be able to wear it this winter. Bonus!

Took me the longest time though...still got more of that green wool left and will be on the lookout for another jumper in a bigger size.

But for now it is back to quilting for me. This is what is on my list:

- got a whole container full of charity quilts, 

-some new I spy 10in fabric squares for an I spy quilt, 

-another 10 blocks for my scrappy Courthouse blocks quilt

-got the batting for a jelly roll rug

-...and several finished quilt tops in the cupboard waiting patiently to be done!

Happy Quilting!

Karin

Overall Feather Design

Well, I am back on my sitdown and very happy. Cleaned up the sewing room and made use of the now empty spare room to put the computer in. Feeling less crowded and things are much better organised.

Started on my workshop sample, just trialling different things that I want to cover in class. The sample gives me an idea on how long it approximately takes to stitch out the class content and also what size of practice samples should be cut out for class

I got side tracked, of course...started playing with rulers, tried different things, realised I had not covered what to do when your space is much bigger than you comfortably can stitch out. Overall very useful which will be used to finish off my handout. The class has now been scheduled for November so I am now well ahead ( which is handy as we are having overseas visitors at the end of July). Also found a new favourite feather border arrangement.

Its the last one in the lines of feather shapes. I think I took that inital feather arrangement from the 'Ambrosia' pantograph and then just continued with the same shapes in an arbitrary playful way. Looks quite nice and helps me to quilt in a little more informal way which I usually find quite hard. It seems that my muscle memorey is hardwired to do really formal feathers and any deviation is almost painful to execute. That was really fun to stitch out.

After that I continued on my mission to put an overall feather design on one of the charity quilts. I had practised this a bit both on the frame and now on the sitdown after seeing it on the website of StitchedbySusan. Like the texture of that design and thought that it could be potentially an easy way to get some charity quilts done.

So this is stitched edge-to-edge rather than allover, meaning I am going from left to right and then back again. This was certainly a challenge and I thought for a moment about doing an allover design - in which case I would have stitched this out in quarters turning the quilt clockwise after each quarter. However that would have meant that the feather plumes would go in different directions and I was not sure whether that would look any good so I stuck with the idea of edge-to-edge.

I found going from left to right easier than going the other way. Started in the middle of the quilt finishing off one half and then turned the quilt to do the other half. Must say, initially struggled a bit as I am also quilting on a larger scale but soon got into the swing of things. Happy to say that I did not get stuck anywhere and was able to move along quite quickly from row to row.

Came out ok, but not sure whether this is almost a bit much. It certainly has got a nice feel to it and looking at individual sections is lovely, even though the overall picture looks a bit crowded. I think I have another few scrappy quilts in my bundle of charity quilts. Might try it again maybe paying a bit more attention to the scale as some of my shapes are a bit irregular ( like instead of getting stuck I would make really long and big shapes to fill out a space 😆). Good experiment...took two afternoons to completion, so a good option for those charity quilts. Mind you, also could see this with a nice pantograph stitched allover!

Well, we shall see what I feel like next.

Karin

Saga Ended

I have been working away on some charity quilts

Got a new pantograph called 'Hot Rod' which I really liked

...and put it on two charity quilts that had embroidered blocks

All while I was struggling with the bent pole which pulled the quilts to the left. Did some more freemotionquilting practice as well but apart from that was pretty much out of action for the last 5 weeks. This gave me a lot of time to think the whole frame business through and in the end I decided to give the frame a miss.

I was missing the therapeutic slow stitching of the sitdown machine a lot. While there are a lot of benefits to quilting on the frame (most notably the easy loading of the quilt) I had more and more the feeling that it is not for me. Given that I had a lot of problems with the set up this put a very negative slant on things which in the end I just could not got over. The new pole arrived but by then I had decided to call it quits as it would have taken me another few months to really feel comfortable with it. Mind you, I am doubtful that I would have advanced to the standard that I am used to in just a few months. While I have quilted a fair few charity quilts on the frame since it first arrived I did not get a great deal of satisfaction from this as I did not feel that I was gaining control of the machine for some of the more detailed work. This meant that I have done none of my own quilts or my workshop sample and I was getting further and further behind.

All in all though a valuable lesson as I had to really think hard about which direction I wanted to go and what makes quilting enjoyable to me. I do like to stitch slowly and deliberately, look at the entire quilt adding a few things here and there where I think it needs more quilting. Obviously I like precision and control which I feel I got more with my hands than with handles I have to hold, particularly for more detailed work. Clearly this is something that one can learn with time and sustained effort, in fact I was already getting quite good on the pantograph quilting. It was easy-ish, very fast and meant that I could knock off the charity quilts in no time at all. However, this is not the only thing I want to be able to be doing and that is what got me thinking about what I prefer.

Anyway, so we took the machine off the frame and put it back in the table and I am back to my normal quilting. Will need to finish off a workshop sample for a Feather workshop that will run in the second half of the year. Bummer...I will have to pinbaste again...that was such a great thing about the frame...just roll it on and you are ready to go. 

Karin

Saga Continues...

Well, the saga with my frame has continued. We did replace one of the ratchets and also the handle bars (as they were sticking and giving me error messages) and then replaced half of a pole. Now this was situated in the dead bar so it was relatively easy to do. I have been using the frame since then but recently discovered that my deadbar is bent, i.e. when you advance your quilt and the deadbar rolls with it due to the bent it then tensions the quilt differently every time you advance. I had noticed that my quilts were more taut in the middle but did not really put two and two together until I saw it the other day when advancing a quilt standing on the side of the frame. Very peculiar! This could be very well why I continued to have problems with controlling the machine in the middle as it would create a diagonal pull.

I seem to be extraordinarily unlucky with these things. The dealer has since been out again and will replace the pole...as we discovered one of the screws that holds the two deadbar pieces together is slightly bent creating this problem. It means that I have to wait again which has been quite frustrating. I am honestly not too sure about all of this, but have promised myself that I will give it a good go before making any major decisions about the future of this frame.

I have been practising in between all of this even though it was quite hard to keep a positive attitude going.

Bought a very nice panto from Lorien Quilting called 'Ambrosia' (actually purchased through Urban Elementz as a single page digital download). So pretty, so me!

Love this and also thought that it was a bit more of a challenge as there is a tiny amount of backtracking involved, so went to work on one of the charity quilts

Not too bad...struggled a bit with the backtracking (as expected) but was pleasantly surprised with my shapes. They are not too bad at all!

It looked really quite nice and those little wobbles and hesitations are very hard to see on this busy scrap quilt.
After that I went for an exploration of an overall feather filler. There is a free workshop over at StitchedbySusan which caught my attention. Not that difficult but also not that easy as I found out.

First attempt

Not bad but too linear and I found that I had limited control over the machine as well as forgetting where to go next. I started watching a number of Susan's YouTube videos and started to think that I was doing something not quite right. Susan's quilting looked rhythmic and even whereas mine seemed to be a tad more frantic. So next I tried the design in Manual mode.

Found that I definitely am going too fast...when stitching in Manual mode I literally had to force myself to slow down (as my stitches got too long). This was not easy at all but after a few moments of playing with the speed setting I managed quite well on a smaller scale design (except for the middle where the problem with the pole is situated). Towards the end of this piece I did a little bit of the design in stitch regulated mode again as I need to be able to make it a bit larger for the charity quilt that I have in mind for that. Not sure yet whether I will attempt this as I tend to go faster when in stitch regulated mode and some of the shapes then fly away from me...will ponder more on this. I have done a few practice pieces since then and it is a matter of either biting the bullet or coming up with a different design for that particular quilt.

Anyhow, while there I also tried attaching a binding on the frame. Had seen this on YouTube and wanted to see how difficult this would be (as I hate doing this on the small DSM). Very easy and worked really quite well even on this more sloppy attempt. 

It was fast and effortless...I went around the quilt like I normally would and had no hassles. The left side demanded a bit more attention in terms of where to place my two left hands but I guess this is just a matter of getting used to it. I was impressed! I started on the side which of course I could change by starting on the horizontal on top and then going down one side first and then the other side. Might give that a go as well to see what is easier. But yes, not as fiddly as I imagined and definitely something I will do from now on.

Hopefully I will get the new poles soon and that will be it in terms of the set up!

Karin