Thursday 14 May 2009

Quilt Progress

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Yesterday and today I have been working on the quilting of my quilt. I have to say, this work is so tiring! I have manhandled the quilt backwards and forwards through my machine as I have battled to sew all the various bits and I am exhausted! Maybe I'm doing something wrong? I've only had to unpick one piece of stitching where I snagged the backing so not bad so far.
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The border at the top has been bondawebbed instead of being pieced as I would have preferred, and I have run a zigzag round to secure it and stitched along a couple of the horizontals to hold everything in place. The wadding is only polyester and seems to split easily so I don't want it to disintegrate in use but I don't want to quilt it too heavily either. The centre and side panels have been lightly quilted with some random (very random!) free machining. I hope the quilt police aren't watching!
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I have made a start zigzagging round the appliques in each of the four corners (which involves a lot of pushing and pulling the quilt through the machine!). Once that is done I just need to trim it to size and add the binding, if I've got enough fabric, that is! It's going to be a close run thing!
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16 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Julie, maybe the bondaweb makes the quitling too heavy. Some kinds of bondaweb make your needle stiff. But lately I am experiecing the same thing. I have a large quilt that slips from my table very easily and than it stucks somewhere at the edge of my sewing table. So another wrong quilting line. It makes me very frustrated and like you said: very tired too!

imac said...

But it looks a beautiful piece of work my sweet DW.It was well worth your while and getting tired for, the new owner will be vey pleased to own your work.

Heather said...

I'm not a quilter so can't give any helpful tips, but it's looking good Julie - keep at it.

Julie said...

Thank you Heather :o) I've left it alone till tomorrow now but I am secretly pleased with what I've done so far.

Sharne Gregory said...

Thank you for your kind message. My Great Aunt is finding it lonely at the moment. She is thinking about going into a home for the Blind near her home in Norwich, but there isn't a space for her just yet.

Gina said...

Rather you than me! But I'm sure the end result will be worth it and very much appreciated.

Fenland Textile Studio said...

Hi

I love the quilt. I think once you have put the binding on it will look great. Bond-a-web does do strange things to fabric, making it heavier and needing a closer quilting stitch. E-mail me if you need any furter help (your doign a fab job though)

Unknown said...

I admire you for tackling this! It sounds like very hard work, but it's looking lovely.

Digitalgran said...

As you know, I'm no quilter but would love to make one some day. Yours look especially good to me. If there's a next time :) maybe using something lighter like Misty Fuse would make lighter work of the stitching? Or maybe like me you are sitting too long at the machine instead of taking long rests in beltween?

Julie said...

Thank you Fiona :o) It's certainly hard work but I'm pleased to say I'm not too far from finishing it now.

LOVE STITCHING RED said...

Hi Julie, I've been away and catching up AGAIN!!

You've really made loads of progress with this quilt. I like the theme of it!

I can't remember, do I owe you an email? I feel like constantly trying to catch up with blogs, flickr, emails so I'm sorry if I've been a bit forgetful

Hope to catch up with you again soon! Love, Carolyn xx

Shirley Goodwin said...

Thanks for your kind comments, Julie. I also have trouble pushing quilts through a sewing machine to quilt them - I am just making tops at the moment as samples but don't look forward to having to quilt them later.

Heather said...

In response to your comment on my blog re wisteria - couldn't you take yours out of its waterlogged pot and plant it in the soil? That way it might survive and as it mainly grows upwards, wouldn't take up much space in the ground.

Julie said...

Hi Heather, this poor plant must be wondering what it did to deserve me as its custodian! lol Yes, I think that will probably be the best idea if I can get it out at all as it's very tightly packed. It has already been cut to the ground once before when we moved it to install the shed.

Jackie said...

I'm so behind with blog reading. Hope you are well. The new room looks like it will be a great creative space.

Becky Mairi Farrell said...

I didn't know quilting was such a physical occupation - maybe you should patent a whole new quilt-based fitness regime! I always feel like I've been to the gym after printmaking, lots of standing, vigorous rubbing of ink and manhandling the presses! And people think we artists just sit around all day while our muses do all the work for us LOL!