Sunday, July 18, 2010

Quilting Sallie's Quilt

Hello Everyone,

I promised the girls that took my Sallie's quilt class last week that I would have it quilted by the next class meeting on the 26th of July. This is the largest quilt that I've put on my quilting machine. In fact, it is the largest quilt that I've made. If any of you are wondering what batting I use, I've totally switched to Dream Wool batting. I love it so much that I purchased a 20 yard roll of it. I love the way it quilts, I love the way it drapes on a bed or hangs on a wall. When you think of wool, you think of "heavy".....this batting is light and airy and washes well too.

I have some very pretty pantographs but I just couldn't bring myself to quilt an all over pattern on Sallie. She is special and deserves to have each block quilted individually. This is going to take me days and days to quilt.


I'm definitely guilty of "over-engineering" a quilting project. I have to think about what I'm going to quilt for a long time. In fact, the entire time I'm making the quilt, I think about how I'm going to quilt it.


When one of our fabulous machine quilter's come into the shop, I ask them how they would quilt a quilt like this. It is my process of information gathering before I start off on my own. I was going to quilt cross-hatching on the border. I even marked one side then I changed my mind to long, flowing feathers. There is a small geometric pattern in the red border, and the cross-hatching and design in the material were competing for attention. Trying to decide what to quilt is the hardest part of machine quilting for me.

It is just so hard to tell how the quilt is going to look, when you can only see 16" of the quilt at a time on your machine. I'll try to get a few more rows quilted today....then off to the shop tomorrow to see all the wonderful customers with their fabulous creations.

I can't change my mind anymore.....I'm totally committed to the direction and style this quilting is taking me.

I hope all of you have a wonderful week quilting to your heart's content.

As always,
Lynn

3 comments:

Beverly said...

I totally agree!!!!! The quilting makes the quilt. You are doing a fabulous job on Sallie's Quilt. It will be another spectacular job. Well done my friend, well done. Always Bev.

Crissie said...

What else could possible be said... IT'S FANTASTIC, LOVELY ... GORGEOUS I personally think every quilt you have quilted is .... hard to express just how beautiful.
I agree with you it is a job deciding exactly what you want or what the quilt is asking for, what pattern what color thread how much, not to much and so forth. I believe too it's even harder when it belongs to somebody else! I always worry that they might not be happy with my decisions?
Lovely ...
Crissie

Chris R said...

It's such a beautiful quilt. Hopefully I will have some blocks made for the next class. I really enjoyed all the info you shared at the first class. You have such an eye for color.
Chris