Quilt Along with Leah Day #6

Quilt Along #6 was about stippling in the sashings and the borders. As my little sample had the same size border as the sashing I stippled all over it in a half inch stipple as this allowed me to follow Leah's recommended directions for the stipple in the sashings. This worked very well and was done in one single go, working down the sashing, filling in the left and right sashings, then down again. I then turned the quilt and continued along the border, filling in the spaces around the stars as I went around.  One thread for all of that...brilliant.

Here is a close up shot of the stitching. 

I am really enjoying this as I am learning something new each time. My stippling was good, although a bit mellow...my neck has been out for most of the week so I was concentrating on keeping my neck straight (physio has not been very happy with me) while at the same time concentrating on the stitching. Every now and then I am just making wavy lines. 

What I did notice though and I had not realised this before was that my stitching was ten times better on the black fabric. On my quilts I have  usually been using colours that blend in and are hardly noticeable in order to hide those imperfections. On this little practice piece I used highly visible thread, i.e grey on black fabric, to do the overall stipple. While I was going over the light blue sashing I noticed that every time I hit the black fabric the consistency of the stitching would instantly straighten up. Back to the light blue and the stitches again would be sometimes short, sometimes too long etc. When reflecting on some of the quilts I made I had to laugh because I have often wondered why I have some really decent stitching on some and not on others. Thinking back I had the same experience with variegated thread on one quilt...as soon I hit the light section of the thread on a darker background I have got the most beautiful stitches. This really makes sense to me now... the high contrast of the stitching probably acts as a regulator for your speed and movement as you do notice the stitching in the corner of your eye.

I shall try this out when I am quilting my baby quilt and use thread that is a bit more visible...either that or I might have to look at putting in better lighting around my sewing area.

Also solved my issue around the bamboo batting. I used a size 70/10 needle which I usually use for Cotton batting (why have I not done this before!) and the stitches turned out much better without fiddling too much with the tension dial. I have a Pfaff machine (Expression series) and the machine just seems to like it better for thinner type of batting.

Well, I will miss the next Quilt Along as we are moving house on the 23rd of this month and we will be offline for at least a week or two. I have decided that this is the ideal time to give my machine for a well deserved service...that way I don't have to worry about the machine during the move. By the time the machine will be ready, we will hopefully have the house halfway set up; the family, cat and dog will have settled in and life can return back to normal. 

Until next time

Karin