Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Quilt = Done-zo!

I officially love my free motion quilting foot. It is the coolest thing EVER. It made my quilt go from an average "Oh cool... you sewed some pieces of fabric together" to "Woah! that actually looks like a quilt! Well done!" and I owe it all to that new foot.


I quickly got the hang of stippling. You kind of just have to wiggle your way around and every once in a while pause to think about where you will meander next. I did notice that as I stippled I couldn't help but move my head around in the same pattern. I am so glad I was the only one home because if someone walked in they would have thought I was nuts. Although I guess I just shared that tid-bit with the world so now my secrets out- I'm a head moving quilter... 


My sister asked today if I had to follow a pattern and I am so glad to say that there is no pattern, just random curvy lines. Maybe a pattern will be my next endeavor now that I have the basic hang of it.

 Half way done! It looks like it would take hours and hours to do but I finished half of it in about 40 minutes or so.


Have I mentioned how much I like this free-motion quilting foot?

 

On my second half I started getting creative and trying to write things. I was shocked how easy it was! I swear my cursive in sewing is better than my written cursive! I hid words in different places around the quilt. I wrote "love" once and "Owen" (the baby's name) twice. The design of this quilt is so simple and uncomplicated that I think these tiny details add some complexity and craftiness to it that was missing before.


 I also started making hearts hidden in the design. I wish I knew how many there were. It could be like "Where's Waldo" of the quilting world.

 

I was stippling away when a visitor came and jumped up in my lap! Apparently she wanted to try some of my coffee.  Needless to say it was a bit difficult to sew around her so she didn't get to stay for very long. :)

 

Backing = finished

I was really not looking forward to the backing but I have to say, I think I liked doing the stippling way more than anything else! It just made the quilt look so much better and more sturdy. I'm really excited about it! But now for the binding. I really really really don't like binding.


At the point when I was starting to yell at the fabric my moral support came to the rescue. I swear, my dogs have frustration detectors. Brio started rubbing against my knees and being all sweet and loving. Then she sat herself down by the ironing board and just watched. Probably to make sure I didn't have a melt down. :)


I decided that I had better take a break from the quilt before I just chopped of the binding and gave the couple an unfinished quilt. When I came back, the binding was being much more cooperative and in the end I am not displeased with how it turned out.

I finished the binding and literally on the very last stitch of the binding my needle shattered into pieces- the middle piece flew into my chest! Ouch! I think its a sign from up above that both my needle and I were ready to be done with the quilt! I had read somewhere that stippling is really hard on needles, which makes sense because, I mean, just think about the thousands of stitches that make up a quilt even this small! If I were a needle I would be ready to break too!


Luckily I have a spare pack of needles because I wasn't quite done. With my new awesome free motion quilting presser foot I was able to make a "made by Claire" tag for the back. I'm still kinda amazed how easy it was to write in cursive with my sewing machine! With a normal foot that would be soooo much harder and would look way worse.

 

The front of my finished quilt!



The back of my quilt! (with the label in the bottom right corner)


And this is why I should wear shoes around my sewing stuff. I'm quite glad I'd left my shoes on today. This could have been quite a bit more painful.

Also, please ignore the fact that this particular pair of shoes already has a hole in the bottom. I keep meaning to duct tape it because my feet get wet when it rains but I haven't gotten around to it yet.


1 comment:

  1. Lucky Baby Owen! The quilt is beautiful and I love that you added hidden words and hearts. Keep on quilting and blogging...

    ReplyDelete