Instant Gratification

Well, I'm off porch cushions and back onto quilting for a bit!  I'm sure most of you are relieved!  Here are several pictures of a simple 25-patch quilt I finished up this week.  I am gearing up to machine quilt a top that will require a substantial amount of time, so I needed something to do quickly to get back in the groove. 

I had pieced the top back in April when I was on a mission to use up a bunch of leftover scraps laying around from another quilt.  I am considering this to be a "fall" quilt for me since I really don't care for the color orange in our house (but yet I LOVE Halloween, go figure!) and this is probably as close as I will get to a fall-looking quilt.

Here is the top prior to quilting.  The small squares finish out at an odd size at 1 1/8".  Since I was using up leftovers, it didn't matter to me since this is an easy pattern to adjust accordingly.  Sorry if the lighting varies from photo to photo, they were all taken at different times and in different rooms.

This is after I have marked the entire top and am pin-basting the layers together.  And yes, I do mark every single line.  I want my quilting to be even and uniform and following the lines exactly is the only way I can get that look.

And here I've completed all of the quilting.  I approached this very simply, quilting vertical lines through the entire quilt at about 7/8" apart from one end to the next, all with my walking foot.  The quilt is small, at approximately 50" by 60", so the quilting process went very quickly. 

Next I quilted a grid in the opposite direction, but only in the 25-patch blocks.  I did this by free-motion quilting the lines.  I started at the far left side of each block, traveling down the first line, then over to the next line by quilting in the ditch, then back up the second line, then over to the third line by quilting in the ditch, down the third line, etc.  I could actually travel from block to block within each row with this method without having to stop and start.  (In the photo above, the free-motion lines I am referring to are horizontal in the picture.) 

I used Wonderfil Invisafil for the top thread and Mettler Metrosene in the bobbin, both of which are polyester and very, very fine at 100 weight. 

So now that I feel like I finished a project and got a sense of instant gratification, I am ready to tackle my next machine quilting project.  I have been laboring over what to do on the quilt you see below for three years now.  I am finally ready to get on with it!  I have a couple of deadlines rapidly approaching so this is as good a time as any to tackle a couple of tops that have been in "waiting" mode.  Here is a peek of what I will be working on, below.  The half-inch grid stencil is from The Stencil Company and I am using fine-tipped blue water soluble marking pens to mark the quilt.

I may disappear for a bit so I can focus on getting this quilt finished, but don't worry, once this quilt is completed, I will share plenty of pictures!  Until then. . . .enjoy the rest of your summer and Happy Quilting!





Christmas Irish Chain

Happy Tuesday and Happy December!  Hard to believe, isn't it, that Thanksgiving is now officially behind us and Christmas is fast approaching?  My goal was to have all my Christmas decorations up by December 1st this year, which meant starting the weekend before Thanksgiving.  I never seem to be ready for the holidays, November always comes up on me so rapidly and I am usually overwhelmed with all the decorating preparations and other day to day things I need to do. 

Generally this is also when I do that dreaded floor to ceiling deep cleaning throughout the house.  I don't know why I put myself through all of the work and stress, I can't say that I really enjoy it while I am doing it.  And the older I get, the more I seem to resent the amount of time that it requires when I would much rather be sewing.  But it has become an annual ritual and a sort of cleansing process and I do take pride in it after the fact when it is all said and done (although I am still the only one that notices!).  But this last week I've been coping with layers of pet fur hiding in places you wouldn't think pet fur would find in the first place!  It never ceases to amaze me that it tends to lay on every horizontal (and vertical!) surface in the house no matter how low or how high!

So while I am still in cleaning mode (and probably will be for the rest of December!), I thought I would share a Christmas quilt that I pulled out the other day.  I made this one a few years ago.  I have several quilts I pull out for the holidays and this one is probably one of my favorites, "Christmas Cheer," an Irish Chain inspired by vintage colors.

I quilt all of my quilts myself on my home sewing machine, a Bernina 440E.  I still have not made the leap over to a longarm machine yet, although it is definitely getting more and more tempting!  But for now, I continue to quilt my own quilts and the majority of my quilting is done with a walking foot.  I have done some free-motion feathers and the like on several quilts but I generally do the bulk of my quilting designs in some form of straight or gently curving lines.  To me it is a classic design element and I tend to like clean, classic design.  If you study antique quilts, and Amish quilts especially, so much of their quilting designs are very clean, lots of straight parallel lines, crosshatching, diagonal lines, channel quilting, cables, and of course beautiful feathers.   The other reason I love straight lines is it compliments scrap quilts well.  Most of my quilts tend to be very busy and I feel the straight quilting lines are a nice compliment without competing with the scrappiness and to me they are more pleasing to the eye.

However, on this Irish chain quilt, I experimented with one of the built in quilting designs that came with the embroidery program to my Bernina.  You can see the design I chose in the white area of the quilt.  I thought it was a great opportunity to play with my machine and actually use one of the embroidery features for a change, which is one of the reasons I bought it in the first place!

On this particular quilt I marked and sewed all of the straight lines first.  Once the straight lines were all sewn and all of the basting pins removed, I was able to hoop the quilt and embroider, or quilt, the design in each white area.  It was a bit tedious hooping and unhooping each area, one at a time, but once I got a system down, it went pretty smoothly.  The hardest part is supporting the bulk of the quilt.  In order to assist in that part, I put my ironing board in front of my sewing machine and lowered it down to the same level as the bed of the sewing machine.  Then I stood in front of the ironing board and machine and held up any excess of the quilt that hung down so the weight didn't pull or drag and hinder the embroidery unit.  I have to say, I was very pleased with the way it turned out.

I quilted the cables with the walking foot as well.  (I always mark all of my lines with a fine blue water soluble pen before I ever baste or layer my quilt together.)  Then I start at one corner and follow each line from top to bottom, one line at a time.  The gentle curve is not an issue if you sew slowly.  I also find that wearing Machingers quilting gloves gives me the traction I need to gently guide the quilt under the needle.

My favorite thread for machine quilting for the top side of the quilt is made by Wonderfil, called Invisafil.  It is very, very fine, a 100 weight thread, and 100% polyester, so it is also strong.  It comes in a wide array of colors but I find that the whites and off-whites blend extremely well with many fabrics and virtually disappear even when sewing over other colors.  It is also wonderful for stitching in the ditch and I have had excellent results with it on all of my quilts.  In the bobbin I usually use DMC machine embroidery thread in the 50 weight or Mettler embroidery thread in the 60 weight.  Both are 100% cotton and also come in a wide array of colors.  I always match the bobbin thread to my backing fabric.

If you have never tried machine quilting with a walking foot, I suggest you give it a try!  It's relatively easy to do, a lot less stressful than free-motion quilting, great for beginners, and with a little bit of prep work, it's a great way to actually get some of those quilt tops quilted that have been piling up. 

I hope you enjoyed my Christmas show and tell!  Please don't hesitate to contact me with questions.  I try to respond to all of the comments.  And now. . .it's back to cleaning!  Ugh. . . .