Thursday, June 16, 2011

Stop, Drop and Roll, part 5.3

Welcome to week 5 of the Stop, Drop and Roll Quilt Along! I am hosting this for the Old Red Barn Co. Flickr group.

Week 1: We made our blocks.
Week 2: We assembled our quilt tops.
Week 3: We basted our quilts.
Week 4: We practiced some straight line quilting patterns.

This week, all of the free-motion quilting patterns are based on a single curve, like the letter "C".

The machine:
I used my Janome 6600 for this video. I used the darning foot on the machine and I dropped my feed dogs.
The thread:
For the top thread, I used Tutti from WonderFil, color TU10 Roses.
For the bobbin thread, I used DecoBob. by WonderFil, color DB209 Raspberry.

The video:
Today's pattern can be considered a Halloween pattern, but I quilt spider webs on other types of quilts, too!

Grab some scrap fabric sandwiches and practice this design:


The finished pattern:


The hints:
  • I usually pause in the corners to allow the machine to take an extra stitch. This makes my corners nice and sharp.
  • When I need to stop the machine, I stop in a corner. If I stop in the middle of a design, the stop/start will leave a visible jog.
  • Even though my first machine quilting teacher told me to "quilt fast and don't stop," I quilt rather slowly. I set my machine to the speed I want to quilt, and then put my pedal to the floor. This helps keep my stitches a consistent length.
  • I stop frequently while quilting. This keeps me from getting a sore neck, allows me to reposition my hands, and gives me time to figure out where to place the next design.

Visit again tomorrow for another single-curve free-motion quilting design.

2 comments:

Diana said...

I was so excited to see you quilting a spider web as I am about to quilt one for the first time.............so imagine my horror when your video skipped the whole web part! AGGH! So tell me, do you start the web from the center and work outward or the outside and work in? I really need to know!

Leah said...

Awesome Spider Web! I've also tried this design and have a few ways of stitching it.

From the center:

http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2009/10/day-52-spider-web.html

and along the edge:

http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2010/10/day-224-cobwebs-in-corners.html

I love the hot pink on black! I must try that color mix in a real quilt!

Cheers,

Leah