Sew Thankful Blog » Longarm Quilting Related

Last year I spent a lot of time working on my physical well-being, working out and revamping my lifestyle to become stronger.  This year I will continue on that path, but I need to get back to feeding my creative well-being. I think I only quilted once or twice in 2009. YIKES! Poor Maximus (the longarm) has been screaming for some attention.

Good news.  I finally have loaded a quilt top on the longarm. This top is one I inherited a long time ago and I do not know the maker.  Bless his/her heart…they must have had very poor eyesight and definitely did not own an iron. This top has virtually every problem you can imagine:  extremely poor piecing resulting in curvy seams & DD cups, selvage edges exposed on the top side where seams were less than 1/4″, none of the blocks have seams that match and most of the points have been destroyed, not to mention the old poor quality polyester fabrics fraying galore. Definitely not a show quilt.

Oh no….this one will never be seen in public. BUT, if I quilt it densely enough to keep it held together, we can use it to cuddle & keep warm in our family room.  No stress required!

I have to admit…one of the reasons this top has gone un-quilted for so long (6 years) is that I worried it wouldn’t turn out perfectly.  WHAT a  joke! There is NO way that thing is ever going to look good, no matter what is done to it. Reality check: Nothing I could do to this quilt could make it worse.  So I decided to scribble quilt or whatever…in all the wonky blocks.  But what about all the open white spaces? Yes! Lots of dense pebbling. I love pebbles but I had never developed that skill so this quilt is the perfect practice, practice, practice candidate.

White on White Practice Pebble Quilting

I’m using  Bottom Line Thread top & bobbin for this quilt since the quilting is so dense (approx. 1/4″ pebbles in the white areas and dense scribbles in the wonky blocks). I love this thread and the fact that it blends right into the quilt without a lot of thick build up even if I happen to backtrack over the same area multiple times.  I have heard that some longarm quilters have difficulty using it in the top of their machine, but that has not been my experience at all (at least so far).  I love it and have had very few breaks unless I did something irregular (such as a sudden jerk).

It may seem a little crazy to spend so much time (and so much thread) on such a poor quality quilt/top, but I’ve got to say it’s helping me BIG TIME to get comfortable with Max and to fine tune my fine movements. I’m LEARNING and this feels fantastic!  Yes, I still have a ton to learn and I’m OK with that but I can definitely see improvement in my pebbling from when I first started.  That’s a great thing.

The best part of this: I’m taking a big item off my to-do list, finishing it and making it a useful item to keep my family warm.  That’s an AWESOME thing. 

No more fear, no more excuses, and absolutely ZERO regret.

How about you? Do you have a project or several you’ve been putting off finishing because they aren’t necessarily your idea of  “the best”? Isn’t it time to just get ‘em done and get some use out of them?  What’s holding you back?  Feel free to share your stories or comment. I enjoy reading your responses.

This entry is a continuation of my previous post.  If you didn’t read the previous entry you may find it helpful to understand what I’m doing:http://www.sewthankfulblog.com/?p=313

I haven’t completely finished my latest practice piece yet, but I can show you how it’s coming so far.

After I completed quilting the panto design over the entire surface of the top fabric, I began shadow quilting from the front using a darker shade (hence, a “shadow”) of Glide Thread.

The darker "shadow" thread was applied from the front of the machine.

The goal of my “shadow” quilting was to practice quilting from the front of the machine without having to think about what kind of design to practice.

Since I had already quilted the panto design from the back of the machine (good practice in itself!), my design was in already in place and no marking was required. Yes, I know I could think up a design, but my time is limited so I need to make the most of it and maximize practice time and materials whenever possible.

Using this method, I was able to get a feel for following the line of the design as well as the relationship of the hopping foot to the line of stitching.  I was also able to experiment with improvised quilting where desired…i.e., if I felt an area of the panto was too open, I could practice stretching out the size of my freehand quilting using the “shadow” thread in order to fill the area better.

Once I finished each pass with the “shadow” thread, I changed threads (top and bobbin) and applied the contrasting “over” quilting thread. For my highly contrasting thread, I chose a bright yellow.  See the edge of the “over quilting” in the previous pass (right side) in this picture:

Notice the edge showing "over quilting" on the previous pass on the right hand side.

Here’s a close-up:

Close-up of "over" quilting using yellow thread.

Summary: This method of quilting the panto design from the back, then shadow quilting with a darker (blending)  thread, then over quilting with a highly contrasting thread has been a fantastic learning experience for me.  In many ways it is like quilting 3 quilts on one.  This technique really is working to improve my feel for the machine and hand/eye/body/brain coordination.  I love the effect and the “pop” that the over quilting achieves when I look at the quilting overall.  To me, it has a sense of motion and the yellow makes it burst in joy. This piece is NOT a show quilt. It is a PRACTICE piece–but I’ll proudly put it on my bed and over the years I’ll fondly reflect on the lessons I’ve learned making it.

It’s been MONTHS since I’ve been quilting.  There have been so many distractions since right before the holidays 2008.   No more excuses, today is the day.

I picked my panto:  Meandering Daisy from Urban Elementz

Urban Elementz Meandering Daisy Panto

I loaded my top fabric, muslin backing & wool batting.

The longarm is locked & loaded--ready to quilt!

Full frontal view:

I selected a gorgeous Fil-Tec Glide Thread and started quilting…yahoo!

Close-up of Meandering Daisy quilting

I’ve completed 5 passes…just about 4 more to go. I haven’t had many problems with breakage or tension.  However, thanks to Ginger’s antics (50 pounds of English Bulldog slamming into me) I did need to stop and pick out a couple of times.

My favorite gadget for this is still the Superior Snippers.  This tool is fantastic for digging in to carefully isolate just the right thread to pick out and then snip–if desired–all in one smooth movement.

Stay tuned. I have plans to add some “over” quilting using at least one different thread color for increased dimension.  If all goes well I’ll have pictures of that to share with you next week.

Happy sewing & quilting!!

Nick is my eldest son and he turned 23 this month.  He is active duty in the US Coast Guard.  I haven’t made him a quilt since he was about 14, so it was time to practice my “fast” quilt method again.

I used the Dave Hudson Lighthouse 11″ panto, Glide Thread, Magna Glide Bobbins and Wide Quilt Back Fabric to make this quilt super FAST.  The top fabric (shown below) was a dark/navy blue mottled slash texture. The thread was a light turquoise/teal.

Panto review: I really liked using a Dave Hudson panto.  He includes periodic arrow marks which makes it easier for newbies to keep track of direction.  I would rate this design difficulty in the confident advanced beginner to intermediate skill level category.  Lots of straight lines, tight points, several areas where the lines pass within a 1/4″ of each other mean you need to have a bit of experience/confidence (or be ready to practice frogstitching) for success.

Here are some close-ups – click image to view larger picture in a pop-up window.

If you are a longarm quilter, you won’t want to miss this YouTube video by Dawn Cavanaugh.  She shows you very quickly just how easy it is to use your longarm quilting machine to couch fibers, yarns & more on your quilts.