Wednesday 3 June 2009

It Has Begun!

I've started quilting on the large pink quilt. As soon as my weekend visitor left, I got myself set up and started whirring along.

There was no way I could have quilted this monster in my quilt room on the filing cabinet/ironing board, too much bulk. So I've sacrificed my dining table once again. I'll either have to go out to eat (not), or have couch meals. Great motivation to get the quilt done asap!


And I'm NOT stippling, whoopie! I've been inspired by crazy mom's Jolly Rancher and the spiral squares she did.


I modified them a little bit so that I do a set of spiral squares on 4 disap. 9-patch squares. I happened to start in a direction that doesn't quilt over a whole block, but two block halfs, not that it matters and not that I care ;)

So in total, 16 D9P squares will have 4 spiral squares and they're connected. Gosh, this is so much easier to understand when you look at the quilt. Basically I start on the outside on one set of four squares and work my way to the center, complete the center square of the quilting, and continue down to the center of the next 4 squares and work my way out doing spiral squares.


It definitely gives a nice 3D effect on the large quilt!

I'm using variegated pink Guetermann thread as it's the only pink thread they have on 800m spools at my store. I would have preferred solid, as any bottom thread coming through is not as noticeable, but alas, I doubt anyone else will notice!

The straight lines are relatively quick with the walking foot, HOWEVER, I didn't consider that Amanda Jean's Jolly Rancher quilt is a lot smaller than mine and therefore a LOT easier to turn.

Here you can see my poor old Singer being manhandled to push a double-sized quilt through it!

I ended up rolling the bulkiest part of the quilt up and only doing three sides before turning the quilt back so that I avoid having to push the bulky part through the machine. The safety pins keep getting caught on the shank and thread coming down to the needle when I do that.

I got about 12 D9P squares quilted before the clock struck midnight, and thanks to having a dinner invite canceled for tonight, I should get a bunch of squares done today as well!

Haha, what does this remind you off? Ginormous candy? A strange gift?

4 comments:

Cristin said...

Lovely! I'm getting ready to free-motion quilt for the first time on an actual quilt...(instead of straight) and I'm so excited! I love this pink quilt and the fun design you're doing. I look forward to seeing it finished! Well done :-)

Crispy said...

Oh the design is wonderful. My hat is off to you, there is no way I would ever try wrestling a big quilt into that small harp area. I was showing my DH and he goes "How can she even see what she's doing?" I have the same question LOL.

Crispy

Unknown said...

Wow, the quilt looks wonderful. I love bright colours. Must be because of the winters here in Canada heh?
Do you ever think that Amandajean, who gets so many comments ever thought her blog would go the way it has?
I found her quite by accident, looking for fingerless gloves and there she was with a blog on quilting....I thought...I can do this...and the rest as they say is history.
You do great work too, I love visiting and am glad you enjoyed the recipes....adding rhubarb to the cowboy bread...never thought of that.
Did you add sugar to the rhubarb, then add it to the bread? Different stuff.

Jocelyn said...

I still think this is a very cool quilt. Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving such a nice comment.