Quilting Coins

I've started quilting Coins, a quilt I made from Modern Quilting Magazine (2012 issue). The quilt in the magazine had straight line quilting that was quite effective, but I knew it would drive me crazy, so I wasn't going to do that. I like the looks of multiple designs mashed together. I tried that in one ring of the practice pieces I was doing and wanted to try it on a real project. When these photos were taken I'd finished one of the inner strips on the quilt.

This is a wall quilt and not particularly large. The white areas are a white on white fabric. I chose a darker beige thread so it would show on the white fabric.

Leah Day says that if you start using thread you can see your quilting will immediately improve, and I think I'm already seeing improvement.

I take a lot of classes from a lot of teachers, all online, and mostly on Craftsy or The Quilt Show. I've learned that no one teacher has the right combination of  techniques for me. I'm using designs and techniques from several different teachers.

This morning I started quilting the second inner strip. Not totally sure what I'm going to be doing with the outer borders. There are borders on the top and bottom too. I think feathers of some kind, but I have not quite figured out what.


This quilt was sandwiched using pins, and a variation of the method that involves controlling the layers with boards. I didn't have the boards, but I would like to get some. The system truly does work and you can do it sitting down. I think you could probably sandwich a baby quilt or a twin sized quilt using this system easily enough.

I find that when I start working on projects that ideas for additional projects come into my mind almost automatically. One thing I'd like to do this year is at least one Christmas project. Another is to learn a pencil coloring technique from the Craftsy class Thread Art that I originally took last year. I've been rewatching the classes and I think I'm ready to at least try out some coloring on my current FMQ practice piece.

Take care all.

Free Motion Again

I've been working on my Coins quilt the last few days. I got it sandwiched, and I've been ditching it using a walking foot. I've taken a bunch of classes on Craftsy on quilting by machine. Some of the teachers teach using a walking foot, some teach ditching as you go using free motion. This particular quilt has lots of long straight lines and doesn't have blocks. I think the walking foot was the way to go here.

I decided to use thread that would show. I was a little worried about the ditching, but in the photo you almost can't tell it is there. The background fabric is white on white. I'm using a color that is darker than the darkest shade in the fabric, and I think it works pretty well.

I started with a pattern I'm pretty comfortable with, a version of leaves. My intention is to have the patterns run into one another. I did that with one ring on a practice piece I was doing recently, and really liked the look. So the next pattern will be a smaller pattern to fill in around the leaves and then will give way to another larger fill pattern. Not sure what yet.

I've tried multiple ways to control the quilt as I am moving it around the machine. The latest one is this ring called a Halo. I find that I like it a lot. I tended to get my hands hung up under the machine when I used Ann Petersen's quilt movers. Those were pieces of shelf lining. Basically it worked pretty good, but I like the Halo better. I hated quilting gloves. They were always in the way when I needed to do something delicate.

Take care all.