I spent quite some time undoing it and then analyzing what the problem might be. Apart from the shocking longarm job for which Cheryl unfortunately paid good money, there were several problems with straightness and how she put it together. I ended up taking the borders off, re-doing the center seam, reinforcing some wonky seams, eliminating one border, fixing up some holes and sewing it back together again. See HERE for a before and after shot. Unfortunately last year I had to stop at this point due to a health issue and after that other projects somewhat overtook this quilt.
So I finally knuckled down to pin baste Cheryl's quilt ready for quilting this morning.
Was a bit nervous about this as the quilt is not entirely straight and bulges out in the middle a bit...however this turned out well and it is laying very nice and flat
So, on with the show...I am ready to FMQ this. Initially I thought I would FMQ some motifs or similar, however looking at it now and re-evaluating, I decided to meander all over it. The reason for this is that I actually only got about an inch and half on two of the sides, so heavy quilting is probably not a good idea as I cannot predict with certainty how much it will shrink (and the batting is wool which has a bit of puff to it).
I am going to use my Sensormatic FMQ foot for this...wanted to have a bit of a play with this foot for a while
It is very unobtrusive and open in the front, so visibility is very good. On the Pfaff 4.2 (as on the Pfaff 4.0) you have a special Sensormatic FMQ setting for this (as opposed to the Springloaded setting). Have not used this that much..at low speed this foot will raise and lower with each stitch to hold the fabric on the stitch plate. At higher speed, this foot starts gliding over the surface of your quilt as you gather speed...so it is ideal to use for designs where you need to have a bit more speed. With more speed of course, you need to be wary to stay in control of your stitching, so this should be interesting to give this a workout. Had a bit of a play this afternoon...good fun.
I am on a mission to finish this by next week...will then need to hunt around for some binding though as Cheryl had cut her binding on the long grain which would have amplified the bulging out of the quilt, so I don't really want to re-attach this.
Anyway, that's all from me today. Linking up to Anything Goes Linky Party at Stitch by Stitch
Karin
This is an interesting project to follow - hopefully you will post the quilt after you have it quilted!
ReplyDeleteI was wondering where you were at with this quilt, glad to see its being quilted after all this time. Can't wait to see the finished quilt.
ReplyDeleteWow, this is a terrific top. Good luck with the next phase.
ReplyDeleteCheryl's quilt is looking much better already. I remember how it looked after coming back from the long arm quilting. I look forward to seeing it after you have done the quilting. I am also interested to hear how you go with your new quilting foot.
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