December's One Monthly Goal was to finish hand quilting one block of my version of Linda Brannock's Flowers quilt. It's this one, Volunteer Bloom and Berries, below, and it's finished.
It's hard to see the quilting but it's there.
This is the third block I've quilted and have moved on to the fourth, Bluebells. You can just barely see it to the right and below the block I just finished.
I think I like the diagonal quilting lines, ~1" apart. This Mountain Mist 80/20 cotton/poly batting is puffier than most others I've used and I'm not sure what that will do to the appearance of the final quilt. One thing I know, though, is that it will be warm.
This is the whole quilt. The red lines you see in some of the photos are the ones I used to mark a few diagonals.
I mentioned in
the last post about this quilt how challenged I felt about quilting diagonal lines across the whole quilt and keeping them in line across and down the quilt.
Robin of I Like to Create mentioned in a comment that she'd had trouble with that until she discovered why. When I asked, she said she'd been marking each new line based on the previous one. I had been doing that after I marked the first line or two. (It doesn't seem practical to me to mark every line across the whole quilt, from one edge to the other. So I've been marking sections....)
When I first marked the quilt I'd made a paper template with the angle marked with a fold. You can see that the paper is not a true rectangle but the only two lines I'm using are the top one and the angle.
Making sure that the quilt is flat and straight, I place the paper against a horizontal line in the quilt, then use a 24- or 36-inch ruler to mark a few quilting lines. (In case you can't read it, the paper below says at the top, "Place this edge along horizontal straight line."
I'm hoping checking and marking the angle of the lines against the template will be successful. And if it isn't, I hope the quirkiness of the lines will fit with the quirkiness of the quilt.
If you have any pointers for me, I'd love to hear them.
I'm linking this post to
December One Monthly Goal Finish at Elm Street Quilts. Thanks for hosting, Patty.
I'm also linking this with
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Finished (or not) Friday at Alycia Quilts and
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Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More
Thanks for hosting, ladies.
--Nancy.
This is such a pretty quilt! Your marking system seems to be working just fine, I love the "old school" aspect of it with the paper template and notes. I suspect any "quirkiness" in the quilted lines will disappear entirely when the quilt is finished and washed for the first time. I haven't tried Mountain Mist 80/20 batting yet, but have used Hobbs 80/20 for both machine and hand quilting and like it for both.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Pat. I'm chuckling at the "old school" comment. I think it's because I'm a self-taught quilter (with the help of books, blogs, and comments) that I couldn't come up with a more modern way of marking the quilt.
DeleteMountain Mist battings generally don't get a high rating but I'm using it because I received it in trade for a Mountain Mist wool bat that was horrible. I received two and used the first for Cheddarback and was happy with it. This time, the batting around the edges (where it's not covered) seems to be clumping and pulling away and it's leaving lint on the quilt backing. I don't know why the difference....
I hope you have a Happy New Year.
It appears that your marking method will work fine. And I have to say that I expect the hand quilting on a primitive style quilt to have a bit of "organic" charm.
ReplyDeleteYes, my marking method seems to be working now, Janet. I hope it works through to the end of the quilting!
DeleteI love that organic charm on primitive quilts, too! I hope the quirkiness becomes charming on this quilt!
Happy New Year!
Such a pretty quilt, and i like the lines - they don't detract from the quilt!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Alycia, for sharing your observation about the lines. Not detracting from the quilt is a really good thing!
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