Free Motion Mavericks - Week 375 - Out Of Practice

Ready to go with the first line of free motion quilting, and I will admit that I was nervous.  It is so long since I have used the Singer 15K treadle for quilting that I had to really think about what I was doing.  Before starting I cleaned out a bit of old fluff from under the needle plate and oiled the machine.  Also I had to give the the sewing room a bit of a tidy up and a vacuuming, and then I sat down to do a line of quilting.  I decided to start with the strips between the main blocks of colour and to do a straightforward wave pattern.  Somehow I expected something to go wrong.

And it did.  The fabric shifted as I quilted down towards the edge of the block, bending the stripes as if they were blowing in the wind.  At some point later on I shall probably unpick it.  If I had put a pin in at the end of the strip it wouldn't have happened.

The second strip turned out better than the first, but some of the curves are slightly square shaped.  I managed to quilt a few more strips without a problem until I had to change the bobbin thread for a different colour, and I loaded the bobbin incorrectly.  That gave me a nice tangle of thread on the back to sort out.

I am hoping to regain the knack as time goes on.  In theory free-motion quilting should be like riding a bike - you never forget.  So far I have had a poor grip on the handlebars, collided with the kerb and nearly fallen off.  Things can only improve.  Also I have had to shift back my estimate of how soon I might finish the whole quilt.  I was thinking I could have it finished by the end of April, but was forgetting how much time it takes to dig the potato patch.  The weather has been mild and dry for several weeks, so I have been enjoying being outside and getting thoroughly grubby.  Now that we are having a sudden cold spell and I am spending more time indoors, all the fine movement and attention to detail that is needed for quilting has come as a bit of a shock to the system.  Digging the potato bed and making bonfires to get rid of the weeds is kids' stuff in comparison.

 

Here goes for Week 375:-

Many thanks to Andrée for linking up last time with her Traveller's Blanket.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 373 - Just Enough Wadding

 

Ever think you lead a charmed life?  

As regular readers might remember hearing before, my maths is total rubbish.  When shopping for fabric my brain reaches a strange state of numerical stasis, like a digital clock frozen inside a block of ice, because fabric is sold in metres and I work in imperial measurements.  After spending at least half an hour in the shop scribbling on several sheets of paper to work out how much backing fabric and wadding I would need, it turned out that there was just enough of the type of wadding I wanted left on the roll, and no more in stock.  So I had all they had in the shop.  Over the past few weeks while I have been making the quilt sandwiches and seeing the vast piece of wadding gradually reduce in size, I have been wondering whether there would be enough after all.  This week I found out.  The last three sandwiches just fitted neatly before the wadding ran out, and I was able to avoid having to use the folded and crinkly bits at the edges and end of the roll.  Such a relief! 

Now I have made all the sandwiches, and done the straight line quilting on 24 of the total of 25.  Hooray!  It is nearly time to start the free motion quilting!  From now on the photographs should get a bit more interesting.

 

Here goes for Week 373:-

Many thanks to Rebecca Grace for linking up last time with the lone star quilt she has quilted for a client.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

 

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 371 - Steady Progress

The wedding quilt is slowly but surely coming together.  I am still putting the sandwiches together and doing straight lines of quilting on each one along the edges of the scrappy strips.  It is time consuming, but will make it so much easier once I start the free motion quilting because there will be so few pins to get in the way.  I started out using a regular hinged foot, but have now decided to change over to the adjustable cording foot because it is easier to see the seam line.  There were a few problems today with missed stitches, but I eventually solved it by adjusting the position of the foot by a squillionth of an inch.  I can't understand why it made a difference, but it did.

Choosing the threads has been fun.  This multicolour thread goes well with the scrappy strips.

Dark shades of pink and green in this thread should work well for the free motion quilting on this dark red and black stripe.

This peachy yellow striped fabric is one of my favourites, so I was really pleased to find thread that goes so well with it. 

Out of the total of 25 panels that I am making, I have finished the straight lines of quilting on 17 of them so far - all of the corner and border panels, and one of the 9 centre panels.  Despite the progress, I am now thinking I won't have it finished until May at the earliest.  It is easy to forget how much work is involved in making a large quilt.

Here goes for Week 371:-

Many thanks to Andrée for linking up last time with her Dresden Neighbourhood quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 369 - Planning Pays Off

Now that the marmalade season has just about finished, I am getting back to work on the wedding quilt.  These are the three colours that I am using for the backing, with the gold fabric I have set aside for the binding on the left.  Yesterday I cut out the last of the pieces ready for the sandwiches.  It was quite an adjustment, picking up again from where I left off, after abandoning the project for a while.  Fortunately, I have planned this quilt with uncharacteristic efficiency.

This is how I started, with these little squares representing the nine main blocks.  I coloured them in, with a different colour for each of the fabrics I was going to use, making each block different.  Then I spent an hour and a half at least arranging them like puzzle pieces to make sure the colours were evenly distributed across the whole quilt.  The writing on the back corresponds with which way up the block is placed, and notes all the fabrics to be used and the colour of the backing.

Once I had pieced the nine central blocks I planned the border and corner blocks.

The amazing thing is not just that I have drawn up plans for this quilt, but also that they weren't on scrappy backs of envelopes and that I haven't lost them.  I have even kept the sheets of paper where I was working out the cutting plan for the backing fabrics, which I had miscalculated when buying them because two of the fabrics were narrower than the first one I chose.  That piece of paper also has marmalade calculations on it, how much sugar for the weight of fruit, and just about sums up my creative life over the past few months.

Is it still realistic to hope for a finish by Easter?  Let's see...

 Here goes for Week 369:-

Many thanks to Gretchen for linking up with her Circle of Squares quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

 

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 367 - A Break From Quilting

It has been a busy fortnight of zero quilting.  The kitchen has turned into a marmalade factory because it is that time of year again, the month and a half when Seville oranges are on sale, and when I haven't been busy cooking I have been cleaning up a machine.

This smart Singer 99K belongs to my neighbour Jenny.  It has been up in her loft for years, and her son fetched it down a couple of weeks ago.  It belonged to her mother, and hasn't been used for decades.

I checked the serial number and found that it was manufactured in 1935.

When I lifted the machine to look underneath it I found the original manual hidden in the base.  Luckily the machine hadn't been oiled before it was put away, otherwise oil would have dripped down on the manual and ruined it.

With the manual was an interesting looking gadget called the Singercraft Guide.  I have never come across one of these before.  

It has a blade at the end, the thickness of a razor blade.

The only instructions with the attachment were for fitting in a blade, which must be well nigh impossible to replace these days.  There were no clues as to what it was used for, but checking online I found that it is an ingenious little device used for making rugs.

Perhaps that explains why the machine was so incredibly dusty.

The bobbin winder was absolutely caked with fibres...

... but once I had finished cleaning I was delighted to see that the dust hadn't been hiding any rust.

It was the same story under the needle plate...

... but once I got into all the nooks and crannies I could see everything was going to move perfectly.

The only repair I had to do was a bit of shammy leather tied around the finger on the handcrank, because the original covering, which was probably leather, had worn away so that when the wheel was being turned metal was knocking against metal. 

Once all the cleaning and the repair was done, I gave the machine a generous oiling, and also cleaned the body of the machine with a little dab of oil on cotton wool.

The it was time to test the stitch.  As I expected, perfect!  These old 99Ks make a lovely stitch.

 

Here goes for Week 367:-

Many thanks to Gail for linking up last time with her Fall Mystery Quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

 

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 365 - The First Sandwiches

 

Only five sandwiches for the wedding quilt are made so far, and I started with the four corners because they are only about 17 inches square.  I thought I would make the smallest pieces first to get myself going.

There is a straight line of quilting along the edges of the scrappy strips, which I have sewn with my 1927 Singer 99K.  I haven't used this machine since early 2016, which is when I started using my 1916 machine to celebrate its centenary.  The old machine has had a good run of six years, and I fancied using the 1927 machine again to add to the enjoyment of making this wedding quilt.  Much as I love the 1916 machine, I had forgotten how much smarter the newer machine looks, and how smoothly it runs.

Just these few lines of straight quilting help keep the sandwich together, so that means fewer quilting pins, and it will be easier to handle when it comes to the free motion quilting.  

Just another twenty sandwiches to go!

Here goes for Week 365:-

Many thanks to Frédérique for linking up last time with her baby owl quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

 

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.