Finishes For This Month

Well, where are we at?

I have continued practising my quilting on the new to me studio frame. Was very encouraged by my evolving pantograph skill and went ahead and finished one of the panels I had sitting in the cupboard

I tried one of the new pantographs on there that arrived just before Christmas. It's a new design from Hermione Agee from Lorien Quilting called Airy Clouds. Very cute for little baby quilts.

While still a bit wobbly here and there I am definitely feeling that I am getting the hang of this.

After that one I continued on the charity quilts and did this beauty.

The photo really does not do it justice. Really liked this quilt and decided to quilt it with the pantograph that came with the Bernina pantograph kit. It was a bit bigger than the ones I had done before, so I thought that this would go rather quickly. The pantograph paper roll itself was fairly large and after much head scratching I cut a little bit off on both the top and bottom as my laser was just too far away. Did not make a difference in the pattern as the cut off parts were empty paper and a little bit of the ghost rows. Anyway, my assumption that this would be quick was a bit wrong as the design meanders rather dramatically over the roll and the advancement is in fact very small. The pattern though was just right for this quilt...it is called Zest by Patricia Ritter. I did not practice this beforehand and went straight onto the quilt and to my amazement felt that this pattern was even easier than the one before.

Came out beautifully

Really enjoyed doing this one and looks absolutely fabulous on this quilt.

Then I had one more charity quilt to finish. Now this one gave me a bit of a headache as I am not used to think through an entire quilt before I even start, however with the frame it is absolutely necessary in terms of considering the space you have got available, the quilting path (i.e. minimising the starts and stops) and in general how to tackle the whole beast. This quilt was ackward in the way it was pieced. Very pretty with very pretty fabrics but in the centre it had only 4in blocks set on the diagonal which left an enormous amount of negative space. If this was my quilt that would be great as one would densely quilt the background down...so many possibilities! However for the charity quilts the brief is not to over-quilt them so that they stay nice and soft to the touch.

Thought long and hard about this one and in my mind it became 'The Art of Minimal Quilting'. In considering this quilt I knew that I had to put some sort of secondary design in that vast open space. This is what I decided on

Nothing fancy just some simple line design and the motif thrown in for good measure. Again, if it was my quilt I would have put a feather wreath in there and maybe a grid behind it, however I don't mark these charity quilts with the blue marker as they are likely not washed beforehand...the risk of bleeding is just too high in addition to being a lot more work. So whatever I do on these charity quilts has to be done without marking (or very minimal tick marks with the air erasable marker) unless it is a dark quilt where I can use some chalk.

The quilt turned out lovely

I also had thought to do more in the triangle border, however discovered that the maker had pressed the seams open at times and to the side at other times so I abandoned that idea and just did some 1/4in echo lines in there. When I started I realised that I had not considered the outer border. Wanting to keep this as simple as possible, I just put some large piano keys in there. This meant that I could stop in the batting and then advance and start again. My secondary design was tricky as I had to advance the quilt, do the top of the design, then go back and do the echo lines and the motifs in the area above...not something I had thought about beforehand. Also had a definite plan this time for the ditching but then did not follow it! So again there was a lot of stopping and starting but this time it all looks very nice and tidy on the back, so I seem to be getting better. Very happy with how this turned out.

So, I am getting more used to it, but the different process is what throws me a bit. Also discovered that my leader cloth has not been attached straight on the top take up bar. Was unsure about this but have noticed that it does make a difference in terms of rolling it up straight, so this needs to be attended to. I will have to fix this by taking it off, replacing the tape and putting it on again. Not looking forward to that but it will have to be done. 

Apart from this I have been doing some piecing for Natalia Bonner's 99 Strip Design series.

It's a free quilt along aimed at improving your freemotion quilting skill. For me it is a good opportunity to improve my control of the machine on the frame while learning some fun new designs. The quilt along will stretch over four of those strip quilts...I think I might do a second one however that will probably be enough for me. Should be fun though.

Happy quilting!

Karin

Adventures on the Studio Frame Continued

Well, Christmas has come and gone and in the blink of an eye we are in 2026!

I did continue practising on the studio frame. After I had somewhat successfully managed to quilt an entire practice piece with a pantograph, I then went onto one of the charity quilts. Still using the Daisy Dotz#2 design (available through Urban Elementz) I made it through this floral charity quilt.

Suited it really well and sunk right in so any irregularities are really not noticeable which was a bonus. When I was quilting it row by row I was almost at the end when I saw that one of my rows further up on the take up roller had no tension at all on the back. I think for a moment I just stood there, looking at it. Was confused as to how to fix this as it definitely had to come out...the bobbin thread was literally just lying on the backing. Decided that I would finish the quilt first and then go back to the row that needed fixing. Easy enough, however when I rolled the quilt back up my laser did not align with the rows anymore! Never mind, I took the row out which was easy enough as I could just pull large sections right out. I then went back to the end of the quilt again, found my registration points and went back point by point until I was back at the row in question. Once I had everything aligned again I went and inserted a new row. This worked ok, the alignment was alright except for having moved over on the horizontal ever so slightly. I noticed it as I started and left it. It was more important at that point to just get the row inserted in an orderly manner rather then worry about a slight shift.

Since then I was thinking that I needed something to see my stitches underneath the quilt. I know people say to just feel the stitches underneath but that does not work for me. I was thinking that I needed some sort of contraption that allowed me to see under my quilt at the row that I was stitching. Initially I thought about a physical mirror, but then it hit me...I needed an app. So I started looking at that and found quite a few options. Got myself a simple app for the Ipad which is a mirror with some basic magnifying options. Also got a make-up mirror app which has even better magnification. So all I have to do is to place my Ipad on the table underneath with one of those apps and look at my stitching that way. Works very well, so hopefully a whole row out of tension will be a thing of the past.

After the pantograph quilting I loaded another practice piece. My new pantographs had arrived and I was eager to test whether my newfound skill (?) in pantograph quilting was transferrable to a completely different pantograph, i.e. would I have to start again at the beginning with those wobbly shapes and crooked lines?

The pantograph I was testing is called Airy Clouds from Hermione Agee of Lorien Quilting. On her website the pantograph comes as a 10in design however I ordered it as a 6.5in design...that was a bit arbitrary however I figured that I am more used to that size and it would hopefully be easier to stitch that out.

My first attempt...I was impressed! Not a 100% but acceptable enough. Found this design actually a bit easier than the floral one I had done before. This was very encouraging as that may mean that once you work out speed, movement and how to go about the pantograph quilting it might be transferable to a range of like designs. 
My other practice included my new rulers from Amanda Murphy ...Apples and Oranges

This is a set of three different sizes...4in, 3in and 2 in. While you could quilt these curves with another curved ruler it would involve some marking and getting your curves just right. I specifically bought this for making my life a bit easier and using this on quilts with simple squares as a quick and easy way to finish them off. Love this pattern! 

After that I did some more FMQ which descended into a bit of chaos as I was trying to control my stitches in Manual mode.

I got somewhat bored...it was practice without a real purpose. I decided that the best way to practice is to go on real quilts rather than practice pieces where I tend to become a bit sloppy when I get bored.

So I put a little Disney themed quilt together and had another go at stitching-in-the-ditch and rulerwork

This was good fun...I must say that I really like stitching-in-the-ditch on the frame. I find it way easier and definitely quicker. This time I had worked out a plan for how to go about the order of quilting, i.e. I ditched two rows first and then went back to doing the ruler work. Amanda Murphy quilts this design in diagonal rows however that would mean that you have to travel in the ditch over previously quilted lines which I did not like, so I quilted mine horizontally across which was equally as easy to do and gave me a very neat design on the back.

Well, that's how far I got with my practice over the last few weeks. I since made a list of quilts that I want to finish...I got to about 18 quilts...some of them are already done hanging in the cupboard, others are waiting to be made where I already have bought the backing or cut out the pieces and then there are others which are swirling around in my head to be done one day. No wonder I get stressed! For the moment I will concentrate on the pantographs and some rulerwork to hopefully give  me a bit of a sense of success as it is easy to be discouraged when you cannot execute something you previously were quite proficient at. This will clearly take a bit of time, so I may as well make it as enjoyable as I can. 

Karin