Cheryl's Quilt- some progress

Well, took the quilt home and got some unpicking done...actually unpicked the whole lot as I got curious about what I would find. In case you missed this, I talked about the disaster around Cheryl's quilt HERE. She had it quilted by a longarm quilter and it was truly terrible, so we decided to take it all off and re-do it.

Quilt before binding came off

You can already see in the photo above that there is a problem with the borders...as you can see the body of the quilt is actually crinkling in the borders. In fact there is too much quilt...the whole thing produced a bit of a 1/2 inch fold on all sides...

So, off with the binding...



After binding was removed

Much better, but I think I was right ...the borders are not attached properly and the whole thing is wavy. Also, some suspicious fullness in the right upper part of the quilt, so my guess is, there is already a problem with the inner border.



The back

Now the back was interesting. I thought I could do some repair work around the seams, however that is only going to be possible along the major seams (I think).  The other thing I noticed is that Cheryl used at least stitch length 3- 4 to sew the seams. Just in case there are new quilters who read this...you need to use stitch length 2 - 2.5 to sew the seams. Anything bigger then that is too loose and makes your whole quilt more fragile...initially I thought I might give this a rinse through however after seeing that, that is not going to be an option...

Washed the back instead and hung the batting outside to have some wind blowing through to fluff it up  a bit again.

Bit undecided now...I am thinking that the 2 borders need to come off. I measured it and there is some variation around the whole quilt (by as much as 1/2 inch and a little bit more here and there). I think we might be ok with the first pieced border...the centre, including the first pieced border, comes to about 55 1/2 inches all around. Once I take the other two off I could square the quilt top off and re-attach the other borders...I need this to be lying flat in order to stitch along the ditch around the major seams, otherwise this would become a nightmare to do (as it obviously did for the longarm quilter). Alternatively one could stipple over the whole lot and be done with it. While it would come out ok, the whole quilt would be crooked and I am risking major puckers all over the place as the top is bigger than the borders that surround it.

Ironed it a bit and trialled using some starch to get rid of the sewing marks...yep, that works fine and will help to stabilise the whole thing.

People probably think I am a bit crazy for doing this , but this is somebody's work and it would have taken some time to put together. The fabric is gorgeous and would not have been cheap. The design is beautiful and the whole quilt looks very nice even though some of the seams are not matching up. I am a seasoned quilter...it does not take much for me to take of the borders and re-attach them a bit better (and no, it still will not come out perfect). I do think we should value some of our earlier attempts at quilting. I still got my very first quilt which looks absolutely hideous, but I still remember feeling thrilled to bits that I actually managed to put it together. With that in mind, I decided to tackle this...not exactly sure re the quilting. I will wait and see how this will turn out first.

Linking up to Anything Goes Linky Party at Stitch by Stitch

Karin

Same old WIP

Working away on my Colour Adventure quilt. I am now at the first border (hopefully this is not getting too boring for people - same old quilt week after week).

Again quilting with blend-in thread...I noticed with this design that I had some white little dots showing up as I was using white in the bobbin. Probably showed up more on this design than on the others before as this design has more variation in speed once you get going.

My tension is definitely right and normally I do not worry about a few white dots here and there. However this was definitely starting to distract me as I was trying to concentrate on the design. I am finding that in general, any fluff or loose threads etc...influence how well I stitch...obviously I am easily distracted.


After a while I remembered the "Magic Bobbin Washers" in my draw. I originally bought these some years ago for my previous machine to help with tension issues.  I do not usually use them in my current machine as I rarely have tension issues these days...nevertheless I put one of them into the bobbin case for stability to see whether it would help with the pesky white dots...and yes, definitely made a difference. Still have the occasional one, but not to the same extent as before (4-5 stitches in a row, depending on direction stitched). Instantly my stitching got better, as I did not have that distraction and could concentrate on getting the design going.

Definitely stitching with light thread on that black second  border. While the blend-in designs look good, I really prefer the light thread on the dark fabric. Can't help myself. Just like the look of it and also find it easier to stitch on dark fabric.

Not sure what feathers to stitch in the outer border...might have to look at it for a while.

Linking up to FMQ Friday over at the Freemotion Quilting Project.

Karin

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Karin

Look what happened

Hmm...while I was sewing along (doing the microstippling),  a piece of my foot just fell off. That's right, it just fell right in front of me on my quilting...took me a few seconds  to register that this was part of my foot. Not really sure how that happened, all I can think of is that the little plastic piece got somehow weakened over time and the continued use gave it the rest.

How bizarre is that?

Anyway, went to the local sewing shop and another surprise...they just replaced it for free. How nice is that! Was not really expecting this...great service! I am so impressed.

Apart from this, nothing new to report over here, other than that I am working away on this quilt with my new springloaded foot. Tried the sensormatic FMQ foot for a moment when the other one gave up its ghost, but just did not feel that I had the same amount of control over my quilting. I am really used to this particular foot.

 

Heading over to Anything Goes Linky Party at Stitch by Stitch...

 

 

Karin

Microstippling Completed

I finished the microstippling!

Hilarious...I love the back of this quilt almost better than the front.

 

 

Looking forward to the next part...more feathers.

Karin

Microstippling

Finished the major quilting in my quilt and am doing the surrounding areas. Decided to microstipple in the black surround with black thread...what craziness!!

Had to put all the lights on in the room plus use my OTT-Light...in the end I had to lay down the OTT- Light behind the foot shining directly onto the area to see where I was going (and even then it was a bit of a challenge).

Probably hard to see in photos but turned out quite alright...flattened it nicely and like always - not a line crossed (I wish).

Having major problems also with the bearding on this quilt. I am using a bamboo batting that I had left over. I distinctly remember thinking about the bearding when I was doing another project (which was a light project and did not impact that much) but obviously had forgotten about this when it came to this quilt. THIS IS IT...I am not using bamboo batting again. While the batting is nice and soft and easy to quilt, the bearding is actually quite bad and is distracting when FMQ, particularly in the black areas...quite a hassle to clean that up before you can even start quilting. Not looking forward to the outer boarder which is all black and at the moment looks like fluff all over.

Well, on with the show...once I have finished this I am thinking of doing more feather work in the borders.

Heading over to FMQ Friday at the Freemotion Quilting Project with Leah Day.

Karin

WIP: Colour Adventure Project

It's been a while that I linked up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced. So here is how far I got along on the quilt that I called 'The Colour Adventure'...a hugely bright and bold quilt that was a bit of an experiment in colour placement. Got a bit very bright for my liking and is a bit out of my comfort range but I am in the process of finishing it off (I think I started this some time in January...ended up getting side tracked a fair bit starting several other WIPs).

 

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Karin