Back to Quilting

I've been quilting the last couple of days. I have gotten better enough that I felt up to sitting at the machine. The class project which is both a Work in Progress and an UnFinished Object has gotten to the point where I am going to put it aside once more. Almost all of the quilting is done except for the corner stones, and if I push ahead now, I'll do something just to get it done.

This time the color is almost right, but those borders are purple, not blue.

This detail photo is a pretty good one. I chose to do a pale beige on white for a reason. When I started I did not want to be able to actually see the stitches, just the texture. And I got the look I was looking for.

I also learned a huge amount about Free Motion Quilting doing this project. I wouldn't be as unhappy if my stitches showed at this point.

I did the class project for one very important reason. I needed to learn the things that were being taught in that Craftsy class, and also some of the other places I visit regularly. The borders, for example, are more from Leah Day's ongoing class on Free Motion than anything else. And the background pattern is as much from her Paisley design as from the one I learned in Ann Peterson's class. I also wanted to get good enough to quilt another UnFinished Object, the Bed Scarf I made a few months ago and only partly quilted.

Here is a good photo of one block on the bed scarf. I had multiple reasons why I wasn't quilting it.  I had no idea what to do with it, for one thing. And I certainly did not have the skills to even make an attempt. I'm pretty sure I know what I am going to do now, however.

I'm going to stitch in the ditch, with invisible thread and my walking foot all around all of the colored pieces in each block. I stitched in the ditch with white thread all around the sashing and white borders. But I don't want white thread anywhere near the colored pieces. The invisible thread will secure the blocks to the batting and backing, but it won't show.

I'm going to use a variation of the leaf border I did in the class project in the white sashing and borders and the same Flowing Lines border that I did in the class project in the large outside print border. I'm not sure what if anything I'll be doing in the white areas of the blocks, but I've got time to decide at a later point. Once all of the areas of a quilt are stabilized with stitching in the ditch it is possible to to Free Motion Quilting anywhere.

When all of the quilting is finished here and in the class project, I've got three UFOs to bind and I've decided I'll do them all one after the other with the bed scarf last.

Take care all.