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