Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Stop, Drop and Roll Quilt Along, part 4.2 (straight lines)

Welcome to step 4.2 of the Stop, Drop and Roll Quilt Along! I am hosting this for the Old Red Barn Co. Flickr group.

Week 3: We basted our quilts.

Finally, we quilt!

All of the quilt patterns this week are practicing this week are based on straight lines. Free-motion straight lines. If that scares you, think of them as straight-ish lines, or lines that are "mostly" straight (for the Princess Bride fans).

The machine:
I used my Janome 6600 for this video. I bought it at my favorite quilt store, The Quilt Basket. I have owned this machine for about 2-1/2 years, and the honeymoon is not over. This is a fantastic machine for piecing and also does a superb job of quilting as you will soon see. 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 TU01 Sunny.
For the bobbin thread, I used DecoBob. by WonderFil, color DB131 Dark Gold.

The video:
Today's pattern is all horizontal and vertical lines. I think this looks like the pipes and pathways that the Mario Brothers are always running through in those Nintendo games. (Yes, I am married to a gamer.)

Grab some scrap fabric sandwiches and practice this design:



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 the 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.

2 comments:

Dana said...

Waaaaaaaayyyyy cool! Now I'm itching to try it!

yarnivorous said...

Oh that sorta mod blocky look would be fantastic for my huge wonky block quilt sandwich that has been waiting for quilting inspiration (and ability) to strike.