I just finished this top. It's by far the biggest I've ever attempted - 50" X 50"! That's huge for me, I usually deal with minis. And don't usually finish those, so this is a real milestone for me.
Now I have reached the stage of the instructions that I dread: Quilt as desired. I haven't a clue. I'd like to hand quilt it since I have not mastered the machine quilting aspect of this yet (Leslie, I'm pea green with your progress).
If it were just the baskets, I think I would just try for the grid patterns I'm familiar with, but the appliqué is throwing me off. And do I quilt through the appliqué or around it? What about the baskets themselves? Do they "need" quilting too? I can't tell from the picture how the original was quilted. Looks pretty "free motion" to me - shudder, shudder.
I hate this part, but I don't want to just fold it up and put it in the drawer.
Hi Cindy, I zoomed in on the photo of the pattern quilt - it was possible to barely make out their quilting stitches: flowers in the background triangle above the baskets; loop-de-loo's in the baskets; echoes around the appliques with loopy vines; echoes around the basket handles and trailing vines in the borders. Other detail was hidden by the nature of the pattern in the background fabric but these descriptions might give you ideas to go off and do your own thing whether by hand or machine. jennellh (change the mail to news)
If you recall that I'm learning machine quilting, then maybe you also recall that I resisted trying it for a long, long time. I fought it for YEARS- like fifteen??? I finally just did it- with MUCH encouragement and advice and help from Pat on her hill, Polly and Jan who kept pestering me until I tried it. (Not to mention Harriet Hargrave, Diane Gaudynski and Karen McTavish who all had a hand in it, too!) And I'm sooooo grateful that they kept up their gentle nagging. Try it. Get all the information you can get your hands on, experiment with threads untl you find some that work without having to fiddle with your tensions (that would have been too much for me on top of the learning curve for the MQing!). Don't start on an "important" quilt. But if you don't just drop those feed dogs and go after it, then you'll never know what you can do. AND... speaking to others, I've found that most quilters were pretty happily suprised at what they could do once they jumped in. Using a fine thread also helps disguise any boo-boos you might make. I was rather shocked to find that I have more trouble making large enough stitches than keeping them small enough! I thought it was supposed to be the other way around..... hmmmmmm. The important thing is that I am getting a quilt
*done* for a change. That's a really good feeling, even if it's not anywhere near perfect, it's still getting finished, I'm learning something new and my future quilt tops have a real chance of actually becoming quilts. My UFOs better watch out! VBG
Now. First use your walking foot and quilt in the ditch of the blocks to stabilize everything. The applique can be outline quilted with a walking foot (either at the edge or a litle away from the edge). You can circle the center of the flowers and quilt a line thru the middle of the leaves- or get wild and crazy and quilt some veins in the leaves while you're at it. It will take some twisting and turning, but it's completely do-able. The baskets could use a grid thru them- it would look like the weave of the basket. Then drop your feed dogs and go for some simple stippling or meandering in the background areas. Remember- there are NO quilt police. If you want to throw some loop-de-loops into the stippling to get where you want to go, then do it. It's YOUR quilt and you can do whatever you want to do. And every one of us here on rctq will be cheering you along, giving you advice and anything else you need. Just ask!
I want to second what Leslie has said. Do just try free motion machine quilting on something, anything. You may be surprised at what you can do.
IF you really want to quilt this one, either by hand or machine-- what *I* would do: outline quilt around the appliqués, about an eighth of an inch or so. Do some vein lines in the leaves, maybe with a darker green?. (or whatever color your leaves are.) Go ahead and crosshatch the background. Stop at the outline quilting around the appliqué and continue on the other side. Do a basket weave on the baskets, or do a simple flower or hearts or whatever you want in them. Above the basket you might quilt in flowers, so that the baskets are "filled" with the quilted flowers. You can make every basket different too. Maybe you want to add some dimensional flowers to a few of the flowers, quilt that part with the stitches to hold the flowers in place. Lots of ideas here. Do some of what you are used to/comfortable with, and try something new on some parts of the quilt. And you can also combine machine and hand quilting if you wish. It's your quilt, do what pleases you and what the quilt asks for. It will let you know if it is happy.
I second Leslie! Make yourself a little practice square, about 12", and maybe draw the big applique flower shape in the middle so you can get a feel for how you want to do the design. You can do another practice square with an outline of a basket. This is such a pretty quilt, and IMO it needs quite a bit of quilting! Of course you could do it by hand. I'd probably go around every single patch on the inside a scant quarter inch from the edge, then echo around the outside of the entire shape. Find a basket-weave filler for the baskets. Quilt some flowers, birds, butterflies in the space inside the handles. Then an all-over background grid. It would take me at least a year. Sigh. Roberta in D
"Leslie & The Furbabies in MO." schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@l77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
Cindy-
If you recall that I'm learning machine quilting, then maybe you also recall that I resisted trying it for a long, long time. I fought it for YEARS- like fifteen??? I finally just did it- with MUCH encouragement and advice and help from Pat on her hill, Polly and Jan who kept pestering me until I tried it. (Not to mention Harriet Hargrave, Diane Gaudynski and Karen McTavish who all had a hand in it, too!) And I'm sooooo grateful that they kept up their gentle nagging. Try it. Get all the information you can get your hands on, experiment with threads untl you find some that work without having to fiddle with your tensions (that would have been too much for me on top of the learning curve for the MQing!). Don't start on an "important" quilt. But if you don't just drop those feed dogs and go after it, then you'll never know what you can do. AND... speaking to others, I've found that most quilters were pretty happily suprised at what they could do once they jumped in. Using a fine thread also helps disguise any boo-boos you might make. I was rather shocked to find that I have more trouble making large enough stitches than keeping them small enough! I thought it was supposed to be the other way around..... hmmmmmm. The important thing is that I am getting a quilt
*done* for a change. That's a really good feeling, even if it's not anywhere near perfect, it's still getting finished, I'm learning something new and my future quilt tops have a real chance of actually becoming quilts. My UFOs better watch out! VBG
Now. First use your walking foot and quilt in the ditch of the blocks to stabilize everything. The applique can be outline quilted with a walking foot (either at the edge or a litle away from the edge). You can circle the center of the flowers and quilt a line thru the middle of the leaves- or get wild and crazy and quilt some veins in the leaves while you're at it. It will take some twisting and turning, but it's completely do-able. The baskets could use a grid thru them- it would look like the weave of the basket. Then drop your feed dogs and go for some simple stippling or meandering in the background areas. Remember- there are NO quilt police. If you want to throw some loop-de-loops into the stippling to get where you want to go, then do it. It's YOUR quilt and you can do whatever you want to do. And every one of us here on rctq will be cheering you along, giving you advice and anything else you need. Just ask!
Cindy, that's a beautiful quilt! I'm going to answer before I read the other answers, so some of this might be a touch repetitive.
First of all, I'd outline quilt the appliqué. Then I'd do loads and loads of flowers in the spaces above the baskets and trailing down over the baskets themselves. Flowers are *easy*! You can doodle them and leaves without much practice at all. If you want to hand quilt them, that's great! But don't be scared of free motion on the machine, either. Leslie has just begun it after much trepidation, and she's doing great
-- you can, too. :) Make yourself a quilt sandwich to practice on -- 12" or so square should do it -- and just go to town! You can try flowers and leaves, try writing your name, try doodling puzzle pieces. You'll find out that it's not nearly as difficult as you've been thinking! And it's so much *fun*!
Sunny, what a sweet compliment! I thank you for it. But.... ya know how pride goes before a fall? I was FMing away thinking happy thoughts about the nice words you posted. Something was nagging at the back of my mind. Something didn't feel quite "right". I finally stopped and realized that I had quilted a row of small circles about two feet long..... with the border folded underneath the area I was quilting. Rippit! Rippit! Next time I'll be more humble--- and pay more attention! VBG
And I'm *still* smiling!
Leslie & The Furbabies > Leslie, I think you're a great quilting teacher! Sign me up for your > fan club.
Roberta, what color thread would you use? Black perle #5 or #8?
I think I want to hand quilt this. I know I am going to have to take the plunge into FM at some point. I have things I want to finish and they are asking to be machine quilted.
But I really think I want to hand quilt this one. Maybe even enter it in next years quilt show.
Cindy> I love everyone's ideas and enthusiasm . Thank you so much for being so nice. And for responding both publicly and privately.
No perle! Too thick! Find yourself a good long-staple glazed cotton made for hand quilting. I love YLI, comes on a very satisfying wooden spool too. Take the top along to buy the thread, if you can. I really like YLI's medium grey for a lot of things, but there are plenty of colors to tempt you. Remember it doesn't pay to use cheap thread, especially for hand work. Roberta in D
"teleflora" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:xcxXh.134539$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe20.lga...
Oh, I love YLI quilting thread too. And you're right - those spools are just way cool. Hmmm, a goldy, brown might be good. I have it in black, but that might be too much black since the appliqué is all in black thread. You're right, I need to take the top and lay some thread on it.
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