Not sure what possessed me in starting this, but I am determined to finish this. I do like the fabric and must say a project like this is ideal while watching TV. It is quite relaxing but very, very slow. I had a packet of 50 hexagons which by now are almost used up. I thought I would like it a bit bigger and had a try on recreating that template in EQ7. Now, that did not work, so I painstakingly made my own template using a leftover hexagon as my guide. Ha, ha...that took ages but I managed to get an exact copy and am using leftover printing paper to cut out the shapes. Again, very time consuming and not something I would do for an entire project. However, as I got some fabric left over I thought that I would extend this by one or two rows...(remains to be seen whether my patience carries me this far).
My question in relation to this project is around the quilting...
- how do I best quilt this? I do not want to hand quilt this as I am no good at it and actually do not enjoy it either. I know the Quilt Police will be gasping, however this is just for me and I think I can live with it being machine quilted. I was thinking maybe to just follow the seam lines in a curvy way on the inside, but not sure about this...wondering about whether that would be too much.
- also, this appears to be quite fragile in its construction and I am wondering whether I should be using an iron-on batting to secure the piece and then I could 'bag' this little quilt rather than attaching a binding. If I was to follow that idea, when do I quilt it - before I sew on the backing or do I 'bag' it first and then quilt over the finished product?
-on the other hand, maybe I should add a small border...
Any suggestions??
Karin
Wow, great job Karin, I love your colors! Bag it you mean to sew the front and back right sides and turn it inside out? In that case I would quilt the top and batting together and then sew the back on and turn it. Hope it helps!
ReplyDeleteYes, that was what I meant...will have to explore this a bit further...at the moment I am swaying between just 'bagging' it or sewing on a border.
DeleteI don't have any advice, I just wanted to say that it's beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThanks Christine
DeleteI think I would quilt 1/4" to 1/2" from each seam, it would help make the rectangle stand out. I used to be a "quilt in the ditch" quilter but Leah and others have shown me there are many other ways to quilt things. Beautiful quilt.
ReplyDeleteYes, also thought about this, but doing anything with FMQ on this is putting the fear into me...this is a bit fragile and what if it doesn't turn out and what if....you can imagine. Back to immobilisation state.
DeleteYour determination for this project is certainly admirable. Faint hearted is an understatement for sure. It is beautiful. I like the suggestion from cjquilts above as far as the quilting goes.
ReplyDeleteEmma
Thanks...yes, also thought about just doing some lines..
Deletethis does look time consuming but very beautiful! As for quilting, Hmmmmm, I think baptist fans would look good for some quilting interest. Not to busy, but an interesting design giving some curves to all the sharp angles to the piecing?? Stitching in the ditch just seems like a lot of monontonous work:/
ReplyDeleteTaht is a great idea...will try some different designs on paper like Leah suggested...mind you, not that confident with FMQ this. Somehow this piece seems different because so much work is going into it with the hand stitching. Need to get over this.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful quilt! I love those colours! I would suggest machine quilting something swirly (like a wandering vine with some leaves or hearts) along the vertical lines created by the rectangles & then something simpler in the purple squares, going horizontal. Like a little swirly thing & carrying on a simple line to the next diamond. Or you could quilt a horizontal zig-zag in the ditch of the purple diamonds to make them stand out more.
ReplyDeleteYes, I am currently looking at an overall design...still not finished though. all going a bit slow.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestions.