Adventures In Quilting, Or Why I’m NOT Free Motion Quilting!
Free motion quilting seemed like a great idea this morning. I was all set to do some really cool stuff with Sarah’s quilt. But when I sat down to practice, Things Did Not Go Well. I couldn’t get any control over my stitch length at all, or over where the quilting lines were going.
The problem, as you can see from my picture, is my set-up. I really do need a sewing table that I can set my sewing machine down into so that it’s flush with the surface. I considered trying to put things around my sewing machine to make a flat surface to quilt on, but I’ve jury-rigged things in the past, with less than satisfactory results!
I need to save my pennies so that I can get a sewing table. Until I can do that, I decided it’s best to save myself the frustration of making a mess (and then having to waste hours picking out a million stitches of varying lengths). So I wimped out, and put the walking foot back on.
You’d be amazed what you can do with a walking foot. The obvious first step was to make parallel lines of stitching on the blue sashing. This was pretty easy, and went reasonably fast.
I still wasn’t sure what to do with the individual blocks, though. I was going to do the borders, then come back to the blocks later, but after lunch I thought I’d try my hand at quilting the center block.
I worked around the log cabin strips in a spiral, using the walking foot. When I came to the cats in the center, I decided to outline quilt them.
The center block was the most complicated, so I wanted to do it first to get it out of the way. I outlined the kitties, the kitten in the carriage, the wheels, and some of the streamers.
It was pretty painstaking work, but it just proves that anything is possible, especially if you’re willing to horse around with a walking foot! But it took less than an hour, all told, so it was still a lot faster than hand quilting it. Plus it will go through the washer and dryer with no problems, which is important for a baby quilt!
Close-up of outlining
I’m pretty jazzed. I may even have the quilting done by the end of the week!
Tagged with: free motion quilting • machine quilting • walking foot
Filed under: Projects • Sewing Adventures
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I know how you feel. i also need a sewing table. right now i am using one of those medical talbles that extend out and i lay the quilt out on that.
Hi Yetunde! Yeah, having the right equipment really makes a difference! I hope to be able to get a sewing table in the next couple of months, which should make free motion quilting a lot more doable. In the meantime, we’ll just have to make do with what we have!
Darlene