Craftsy 2012 Block of the Month instructor Amy Gibson posted photos (including this one, right) of the finished quilt on her blog, as quilted by Leah Day in her Craftsy class, Free Motion Quilting a Sampler (use the link to the right of this post if you'd like to check out Leah's class).
Even though I signed up for Leah's class as soon as it went live, I am now just starting to quilt the BOM quilt. Leah has tackled each block individually with a unique free-motion design for each. Because this quilt has so much bulk and many seams, I knew I wanted to quilt it on my Horizon instead of on the frame and using most of Leah's ideas for quilting has taken the pressure off trying to figure out HOW to quilt this busy top.
I am taking one block at a time. It feels really good to be back on my Horizon doing some free-motion quilting. I think I will like toggling back and forth between a standard sewing machine and my quilt frame for finishing off my quilts. They each have their positives and negatives, and I have a short attention span and get bored easily, so changing up my quilting method keeps me motivated. When I am sick of one I appreciate the other...and then reverse my mood and switch back!
Leah has quite a lot of dense quilting and challenging free-motion designs for this sampler. I am quite proud of myself for coming as far as I have in that I am not intimidated by any of her suggestions for quilting (so far, anyway!). I feel I CAN quilt whatever design I want now, it's just a matter of doing it. So when Leah suggests pebbles for covering an entire motif I am not scared to do it!
I am on block #8 right now. It does take some time to quilt each block and I am not rushing myself. My biggest challenge was re-arranging my workshop to accomodate quilting on my sewing machine again. I pushed the quilt frame as far as I could to the side of the room and then brought back one of my long cutting tables. I moved my Horizon with its sewing table back to the centre of the room and have it in front of the cutting table. This is similar to my old set-up so that the quilt is supported in the back of the machine as well as the side (I'm just missing one small folding table I used to have beside me. It's now at my mum's for scrapbooking otherwise I would have fit it in as well). Although a little confined, this is working out just fine. I won't ever be quilting a quilt on the frame as well as on the Horizon so I'm not hesitant to make the arrangement work for what I need at the time.
Here are some photos of what I've done so far, including the pieced backing I made for the BOM quilt using strips of leftover fabric (which I showed you last week). You can really see the quilting on the white parts of the quilt back (and front) but not so well on the patterned fabric. I chose to quilt with white Isacord thread, which Leah recommends. It is able to handle the large amount of travel stitching and 'thread play' without breaking. I finished up the one cone I had bought from Day Style Designs (Leah's on-line quilt shop) and had to order a few more to finish this heavily quilted, thread-hungry quilt. (I wanted the thread to arrive quickly so I could keep going and found a Canadian seller).
First, I stitched-in-the-ditch around the perimeter and sashing with my even-feed sitd foot:
I free-motion stitched-in-the-ditch using the darning foot around each block's motifs, as necessary.
Block #1 started off easily with a stipple/meander and some paisleys...(see the blotch on the lower part of the white fabric? I just got my Horizon back from her first yearly cleaning and forgot to run some scrap fabric though before my actual quilt and GOT GREASE ON IT! Grrrrrr! This made me so mad! I hope it comes out in the wash.)
Block #2 is quilted with a big spiral over the whole block (not my favourite) and you can't even see it in photos so I didn't add it. Block #3 is a really pretty quilted flower and stipple-with-clovers. I marked the petals with a washable pen, which you can still see.
Block #4 is an echoed rainbow type design...or if you're Canadian, the retro CBC logo!
#5 is a pine-needle design and more echo rainbows. It's not that visible on the front but looks kind of cool on the back...
I don't have a photo of #6 but #7 is my favourite so far - lots of pebbles and they stitched out sooo nicely - great texture! I'm getting much better at circles!
I'm working on block #8. Not even half way yet...