Quilting Decisions

At Quilting Arts, Bredon in Gloucestershire we're making a Sampler Quilt using Lynne Edwards' book.  After making up about four blocks the time has come to decide on what type of quilting to do.  It's a quilt-as-you-go technique to make life easier as we have domestic machines not particularly designed for quilting,, so quilting a block at a time is manageable and not too scary!

The other benefit is that it gives us scope to practice different types of quilting, as well as learning different patchwork techniques as we work through the book and through the blocks.

For my blocks I have tried a different method of quilting for each one so far.

We started with Tumbling Blocks and on this one I used one of the built-in reversible embroidery stitches on my machine and followed the angles of the 'bricks' as I quilted around them.

Quilters' tape is a good way to extend the lines and angles of the blocks so you can follow the lines and see where to quilt outside of the bricks. This was a quick and easy, stress free method.

 The next block was called Rail Fence.  Unfortunately with this design if your're not careful how you place the fabrics it can end up looking like a swastika (which is not what I wanted).

So to offset this illusion and to move away from all the straight lines I decided to  quilt circles radiating out from the centre.

The method here was to draw the lines in faint pencil using a curved 'OmniArc' ruler and then to machine those lines, carefully turning the block as I went.
A little button in the centre was the final touch.

 For the Maple Leaf block I wanted to emphasise the beautiful leaf fabric with its gold highlights so I decided on free machine embroidery, drawing around the leaf shapes where I could and making some up where necessary.

I had been unhappy with this block because I had mismatched the border fabric (with the big green flowers) and they didn't line up in one direction.

So rather than undo it and start again I added some 3D leaves to hide the mistake and now I like it better - serendipity!!

So moving on to our fourth block I used a walking foot to do some precise straight stitching.

These large feet vary for different machines but the one pictured here is for my Husqvarna,  They are designed to help keep the layers of fabric moving through the machine at the same rate, pushing the fabric through from above and below.  very helpful when sewing straight lines.

The fourth block is called 'Trip Around The World'.  It is made uip of lots of small squares which radiate around one central square in a diagonal pattern.

The patterns can vary - it doesn't have to be like mine shown here.

My quilting then echoes the shape on some, but not all, of the little squares.  It was important to keep the distances accurate to achieve the consistent look across the block and I used the edge of the walking foot to measure the distance and counted the stitches as I went around the squares.

Each square was quilted separately and the threads were pulled through to the back and fastened off by hand one at a time.  Very time consuming.

You may have noticed (or not) that I have changed the colour scheme for the last two blocks.

I started off with a blue and pink plan and then changed the colour scheme in my sitting room.  I want the finished 'throw' to cover my sofa and for it to reflect the greens & golds with little splashes of bright pink that I have in that room.

So the two first blocks will have to become cushion covers in another area but I'm not going to repeat those designs in the new colours as there are 40 sample blocks in Lynne Edwards' book - more than enough to play with.

More to follow - but not all quilting, so watch this space ................