Wednesday 26 June 2013

Fluttering along

Thanks for all the first quilt love. I've never had so many comments and really did appreciate all your thoughts.

Thanks also to everyone that commented on my quilt back conundrum 

I decided to follow your advice and went for the blue on white vintage sheet



I also added some butterflies to stop the quilt from being 'too blue' and decided to add Cadi's name to the front instead of having it on the back.

Really, when will I learn to take photos outside?

Above you can see my butterfly placement audition. I was really pleased with this so carried it over to the ironing board and managed to do this -

Can you spot the mistake?

I mean really? And the letters are fused to the quilt top - there's no way they're coming off. It throws the whole quilt off balance but there's nothing I can do about it now. So I carried out sewing the butterflies on.

Ops, that's the bobbin thread showing through - note to self - adjust tension next time.

I sewed them onto the quilt sandwich not just the quilt top so that the shape of the butterfly could be seen on the back.

Managed to get outside for this pic

And this is where I stalled. I wasn't sure how to quilt it. I've only done straight line quilting so far and, due to the deadline for getting this quilt finished, don't have time to practice fmq. However I really didn't think that straight line quilting would work on this quilt. I really don't want to sew over the butterflies and don't fancy burying a thousand threads. Anyway, I gave it a shot

Already too many threads to bury.

And hated it. Just wasn't right at all. So now I've unpicked it and am contemplating where to go next......

Linking up to WIP Wednesday over with Lee at Freshly pieced

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

3 comments:

  1. Fabulous stuff. I love the butterflies.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh no - marathon unpick!
    If you plan to straight line again, try this to save burying threads - as you approach the applique shape you want to avoid either:reduce stitch length to really small, 0.5 perhaps for the last 2 or 3 stitches before the shape and then just cut threads off, the tiny wee stitches will never unravel. Or, if your machine has a locking stitch use it just before the applique and cut threads off. A last resort would be to reverse stitch for a couple of stitches but this can give a thicker look and stand out a bit.Acceptable on darker, patterned fabric perhaps.
    Another option (too late for you now) would have been to quilt first and then add appliques as long as you don't use polyester wadding which would melt when bonding the shapes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your butterflies look lovely fluttering over your quilt. Second Sheila's locking stitch tip too.

    ReplyDelete

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