My quilting process

This quilt isn't quite finished. I've got a bit of quilting to fix, threads to bury and binding to do; but I thought I'd give you an early look at what I'm going to submit to the Umbrella Prints trimmings challenge later this month. I've mentioned the challenge before. To enter you purchase a small offcut pack from Australian screenprinters and fabric designers, Umbrella Prints. You then pair those fabrics with any other fabrics that you like, but you can't add any additional Umbrella Prints fabrics. You can make anything. It doesn't have to be a quilt, but there is a special quilting category.

I'm showing you this quilt early because I think it's a good opportunity to talk about my quilting process. I'll show it to you again soon when it is finished and talk more about my fabric and design choices.

It's no secret that the quilting step is one of my least favorite parts of the quilt making process. It's frankly just above the bottom of the process pile, second only to basting. I struggled quite a bit with quilting this project and spent far more time on it than I expected.

It is not an exaggeration to say that I tried at least 7 different quilting patterns - pebbles, near-matchstick, serpentine, skewed angle, concentric rings and more before settling into a pattern that I'm happy with. Thankfully the telltale needle marks on the quilt steam out.

Choosing the right quilting pattern isn't easy. While I'm very comfortable with patchwork design, I honestly don't practice quilting enough to always get the design right on the first attempt ...or second ...or sixth. I only knew one thing for certain and that was that I didn't want to quilt on top of the feature fabrics. Thankfully I'm good with a seam ripper.

While working on this project, I mentally reviewed recent webinars that I've watched including Jacquie Gering's Creative Quilting With Your Walking Foot on Craftsy and Angela Waters Quilting Makes the Quilt webinar, available to Modern Quilt Guild members via the community resources tab. I found both helpful. I also queried friends who know me and understand my aesthetic. In truth, I'm sure they wished I had shut up about this quilt instead of dragging the conversation out over three weeks.

I'm somewhat opinionated when it comes to quilting.  I'm a fairly utilitarian person, so I don't like frill or excess curls. I appreciate that some people do beautiful quilting work that shines as the star of the project, but I like my quilting to take a backseat and let the piecing act as the hero. I tried a variety of things - I changed the thread color, I experimented with variegated thread, I explored different with thread weights. Things looked good, but nothing sat quite right with me.

My sewing machine is partially to blame. It's really not ideal for machine quilting. It has a wee 6" harp space. The ditch plate for my walking foot fell to pieces earlier this year and the service tech says it can't be fixed. Even if it could be fixed, the walking foot decided in the middle of this project that it had no interest in holding any sort of sole plate. My machine is not designed for quilting, and I ask a lot of it as I mercilessly shove quilts down its tiny throat. I'd like a new machine, but given another major life purchase this month (our caravan), it won't be on the cards for a while. In the meantime, I make do.

I don't think of myself as obsessive, but I spent a significant amount of time quilting this project. It's fair to say it covered the course of weeks for something that should have been a quick one or two day task. Ironically in the end, the quilting is barely visible. Was it worth all the extra effort? I think so but it's hard to justify a dozen hours of unpicking to end up with something so faint.

I've still got a bit of a threadache to deal with as you can see - threads to bury, a few rows need to be taken out and replaced.

I know many people are reluctant to take quilting out as it's a time-consuming process.  On this project though, I feel persistence paid off.