A chill has settled on Sydney and that was the impetus that I needed to move some quilt tops to quilt sandwiches.
I've been fretting about the quilting on this quilt for months. I've started quilting and unpicked the stitches on this puppy at least a dozen times. It never felt right. Straight lines, circles, scallops, orange peels, ditching the crosses, hand quilting... I think I've burned through a large spool of thread in the process. In the end, less was more and minimal wavy quilting won out.
I also managed to lay down the straight lines the pink/orange/raindrop quilt. Two quilt basted and sewn in three days? That's record breaking around these parts. I'm not a fast quilter. I let things linger for months... sometimes years. I don't really enjoy quilting. I love design, piecing and color; but the quilting leaves me feeling meh.
I've got a great machine for patchwork, but it's really not a quilting machine. I've harped on about harp space so much that Craig now uses harp and throat as part of his regular sewing vocabulary. The thing is... it's probably not the machine. It's me. Even with a gem of a machine, I don't think I'll ever get excited about that part of the process.
Craig's been begging for a quilted poncho again. I'm mortified, of course, but wonder if I could negotiate a longarm budget in trade...
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I know what you mean about quilting! Actually, I don't mind doing straight lines too much, but I want to do more FMQ but I just don't enjoy doing it - it's too physically demanding on my little machine. I'm guessing you mean a budget to get your quilts long arm quilted by someone else, but how cool would your very own long arm machine be? I want one!
ReplyDeleteIt feels like winter here today in Portland Oregon, really chilly out this morning.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing what you've quilted and a long arm sounds like a good deal to me!
Amy, I'm right there with you. Sunday I basted THREE and completely straight line quilted one of those. Here's why: I have been so stressed about the number of quilt tops stacking up that I have decided I WILL NOT start a new quilt until ALL of these are quilted. So, last week I FMQ'd one and almost have the binding all the way stitched. Stress was still there, so I sweated through the three bastings and one quilting on Sunday. I plan To FMQ the other two (takes a little longer). After those are finished I will still have TWO more to baste and quilt. sheezh. No wonder I'm stressed. And then please pray for me that I will never get myself into this same WIP mess again!
ReplyDeleteI agree about quilting. I find it a bit trying stuffing the thing through a normal domestic sewing machine. But binding, that I quite like. It's the finishing touch and it makes the whole thing. And I love hand-sewing. Maybe I should hand quilt... Good luck with the poncho / long-arm negotiation!
ReplyDeleteSo funny to think that we're on totally opposite seasons (I'm in Michigan, USA). I sort of think that's awesome!
ReplyDeleteTotally get that about preferring patchwork to quilting. The thing is... just to be completely honest... getting a different machine really did help with that. My tiny-harped Kenmore now seems like a torture device, quilting-wise.
ReplyDeleteStill when I make a quilt I really, really like, it is hard to commit to quilting it. Sometimes I hand tie just so that it won't interfere much with my patchwork.