Well I finally finished quilting my first twin size quilt. It was quite a challenge. Trying to keep all that fabric on the sewing table and not hanging over and causing the weight to make the machine skip stitches was a work. Another problem that I could have never anticipated was that my hand is not as steady when their is a lot of bulky fabric to work with so my lines are squiggly.
Does anyone else have the problem of the inconsistent look in thread when you back stitch. Its thicker there than any where else on the quilt so it stands out and I don't like that. I will be looking for an alternative method because I'm going for a certain look.
On the borders I made an attempt at lollipops I know that I could use some practice on these but my nine year old daughter loves them as if they are perfect (don't you just love children). With all this candy piled on we are calling this quilt "sweet dreams".
I absolutely love the way it wrinkled when I washed it. I used flannel as a backing because its so warm, soft and cozy. This was also my first paper pieced quilt and I think I'm in love. If you want a copy of this pattern you can find it
here. I would love to see this pattern in other fabrics.
I'm linking to quilt story for fabric Tuesday and Canoe Ridge Creations for modern Monday!
I found your post through Quilt Story. What a pretty quilt - it does look like candy! I too love it when the quilt puckers up when washed, after machine quilting. Washing tends to make errors disappear! I have an idea for you - instead of backstitching when machine quilting, secure the ends of your stitching lines by switching to a tiny, tiny stitch for the last 1/4 inch of the line. I mean teeny tiny - and that locks the line of quilting in. I start and stop that way - I never back stitch. I learned this technique from Harriet Hargrave - she's a machine quilting guru!
ReplyDeleteSweet dreams! I love it!
ReplyDeleteHi, I also popped in from Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story. I have to say.. I LOVE the quilt!! So happy and colorful and yummy, and the lollipop quilting looks great in the picture. What a sweet idea, and a perfect name. And thanks for asking that back stitching question. I have the same problem. Cynthia provided a great tip in the first comment, I'll have to try that. I am a new follower. Nice to *meet* you. :o)
ReplyDeletexo
Kelli
I love your quilt and I love paper piecing. You don't start with something simple! I found you through Lily's Quilt small blogs. Great tip about starting and stopping using tiny stitches. I'm going to write that one down for the next time I quilt something.
ReplyDeleteI just love this one!
ReplyDeleteI kept reading about how the 'real' quilters (lol) don't backstitch - they pull the threads to the back and knot them. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what the heck they were talking about. Then one night I was - once again - pulling out some stitches when I got a seam wrong, but I didn't have my seam ripper with me, so I took a straight pin and was sort of just slipping it under the thread, pulling it out, going to the next stitch, etc. Do you know what I mean? And while I was doing that, I happened to sort of pull down and away on the thread on one side, and noticed how it pulls the thread from the top down through to the bottom. Then I could just snag it with my straight pin and pull it through to the back. Lightbulb!! Now I never backstitch on quilting. I just leave a nice 3 or 4 inches of top and bobbin thread at the beginning and then when I'm done I pull those to the back and knot them two or three times and snip. Often I end up back where I started, and so am pulling all 4 threads to the back, but you don't have to do that. Does that make sense? If you sew several inches on a scrap of fabric then play with it, you'll see quickly what I mean.
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