I trimmed the edges of my scrappy diamond quilt with a fresh rotary blade, cut the fabric for my binding, then went out to play because Spring is here and it feels wonderful. Progress has been slow-going. I am not moving as quickly as I would like to move, partly because I'm distracted and partly because I need to nap a lot lately. Things are getting done, though, slowly but surely. Tomorrow I bind it, which will make me ridiculously happy. It's not perfect - not by any means. I am pretty enamored with it, however.
My machine and I were not working well together. When I tested out my tension and stitch length/width with the walking foot, I got this as a result (click to enlarge image):
Nice, right? I was extremely pleased with that and proceeded to sew the quilt. My results were vastly different - tight & teeny stitches that were uneven and inconsistent, crooked lines, the works. It took a lot of ripping and finagling to get it as close to this as possible. I ended up scrapping the freehand diamonds in the corners that I had originally planned to sew and just quilted around the existing diamonds and went "stitch in the ditch" with everything else to spare myself some frustration. I kept checking the tension, and it seemed fine. I think the problem was the weight of the quilt and the way I was holding it. Maybe? To be honest, I'm not sure. This is the first thing I have quilted in years, and at 36 x 53 1/2 inches, it is way larger than the doll quilts that were really my only and deepest forays into the world of quilting. I think I will play around with some more test pieces before I start on the "Little Village" quilt.Meanwhile, it doesn't look too shabby:
Well, as long as you don't get too close to it. Heh. Again, I don't think Feisty is going to mind when he's playing on it or puking on it or when it's keeping him toasty on a cold night.
3 comments:
YAY looks great but BOO on the tension issues.
I don't know that this would solve the problem but FYI I usually quilt with a longer stitch length than I piece i.e., set it at 3 instead of 2 (or 10 instead of 12, depending how your machine defines it).
And my machine also has a thingie that determines how hard the foot presses down that you can adjust for thicker fabrics. I generally don't need to adjust it for quilting but that is something else I would try if yours is that way.
Yeah, I'm going to ignore that part where you say it's not perfect. It's absolutely stunning, and I love the simple quilting pattern you chose. Beautiful!
Wow, its so gorgeous! I am always amazed at your knack for choosing colors and fabric--you're spot on every time.
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