Peppermint Bark {a finished quilt}

April was a pretty busy month for me - my son turned 10, we had school holidays for a few weeks, plus throw in Easter, work and me learning how to use a longarm. Let's just say it was a full month! Nevertheless I managed to finish a few small projects, and I'm excited to be able to share one of these with you today. This is my version of the Peppermint Bark quilt, a brand new quilt pattern by It's Sew Emma for Fat Quarter Shop. 

I made the crib-sized version of this quilt - and although I don't have any baby girls to give it to, it's the perfect playmat for my daughter to use when she's playing with her Sylvanian toys. I used a few prints by Sarah Jane I've been hoarding for ages (along with a Joel Dewberry herringbone print), and chose a grey solid for the background. I deliberately chose a solid, as I knew I wanted to have some fun with the quilting on this one, and solids are awesome for showing up complex free motion quilting. It's a great pattern for small and medium scale prints - and these blocks sew together really fast.

I used two layers of wool batting for this quilt, which is why there's that awesome puff in the unquilted areas. I love using two layers on small quilts, especially if the intention is that they're going to be used on the floor. Not only does it mean the quilting shows up wonderfully, it also means it's super comfy for kids to sit on while they're playing. All the quilting is done in my favorite 50wt Aurifil thread - Dove (2600). It has blended flawlessly into the grey solid, and just leaves all that lovely texture.

The back of this is a border print by Sarah Jane, so it's pretty much a double sided quilt. I'm quite certain my daughter will end up using this side for her games (she has been asking for a playmat with water and grass on it for some time - I think this fits the bill pretty well!)

I'll be back later this week with some very exciting news - and I'll have another finish to share next week (I just need to get the binding on it!).

xx Jess

A new toy!

A few weeks ago I received a message from the president of the TMQG, asking if I'd be interested in a quilting frame. I'm sure you can guess what my answer was (!?!), and then I found out I was being offered it for free. WHAT? A lovely local quilter sadly passed away recently, and she wanted all her quilting things to go to people who would use them. So I was offered the quilting frame, and our guild now has a pile of equipment on hand for running kids workshops and so forth. I'm constantly amazed and grateful at how generous and wonderful quilty people are :o)

We picked up the frame a few weeks ago, and then last weekend we set it up in my garage aka studio. This thing is HUGE - 3m long, and about 1m wide. It meant a quick rearrangement of the garage, but it is now installed along one wall - and there is no longer any doubt that the garage is my sole domain ;o)

I decided to jump straight in and quilt the biggest top I've ever put together - my Birds and Bees colourblock quilt. I've been putting quilting this one off for a couple of years, due to the sheer size of it, and had been thinking about sending it to someone to long arm it. It's nice to be quilting it myself without needing a year's worth of massage, though!

Once I got the quilt loaded, and my machine on the frame, I realised I'd be fairly limited with what I can do. I only have about 3-4" I can quilt at a time, so it won't be great for large designs, but for straight lines and smaller designs (pebbles and such) it will be fabulous. I've spent the last two days quilting on it, and I'm slowly getting used to it. Up until now, I've never had thread breakage or tension issues on my machine, but I'm finding that's something I'm contending with while using the frame. I spent more time swearing and unpicking stitches with dodgy tension than actually quilting yesterday, but things went more smoothly today and I am about 3/4 of the way through. Considering the size of this quilt, only spending 6 hours or so quilting that much is insane - normally I'd have easily spent ten times that long. Eventually I will look at getting something with a larger throat space, but for now I'm very content.

I've decided to do dense straight lines on this quilt, strongly influenced by Leanne's style of quilting. I had wanted to quilt each colour block individually with different designs and blending thread, but I think this will be really effective - plus the texture is amazing. I'll have to get used to not seeing how it's looking until I take it off the frame though, the suspense is killing me at the moment! I'm hoping to get the rest done over the next few evenings, I can't wait to see it!

xx Jess

Kaleidoscope Stars {Finished!}

Five weeks ago I started a quilty journey that very quickly turned into a bit of an obsession. I haven't counted properly, but I think I've probably spent close to 100 hours working on this quilt. It was worth every single second though - I am SO happy with how it has finished up!

No fancy photo shoot with this quilt I'm afraid, I was too impatient to share it ;o) Hopefully the ridiculous number of photos in this post will give you a pretty good idea of what it looks like anyway!

Almost all the star fabrics in this quilt are from various collections by the hugely talented Jenean Morrison. Her fabric designs are just perfect for fussy cutting, and it was lots of fun creating kaleidoscope effects with them. This quilt is vaguely made using Jaybird Quilts Night Sky pattern - although there are only a few Night Sky blocks sprinkled around the quilt. The rest were made using Julie's Sidekick ruler (which is PERFECT for fussy cutting), but simplified so they don't include the outer star points in the Night Sky blocks. I also mucked around with different sized stars - some are bigger and some smaller than Julie's pattern.

Having the stars different sizes was the perfect way to incorporate lots of quilting into the quilt, too. I added 2 1/2" borders to the small and medium sized stars to bring them up to the same size as the biggest ones. The way I pieced it made it very easy to plan my quilting too - and it meant I did very little marking too as I could just use the borders to guide my quilting. I went all out with the quilting on this quilt, and I am delighted with the results. I feel like I'm a lot more relaxed when I'm quilting lately - I don't need to focus on what I'm doing as much anymore, so it is a very meditative thing to do. The only problem is how sore my shoulders get after quilting a quilt this densely ;o)

I quilted all the negative space first (using 40wt Aurifil in 2021) and then went back and quilted the stars using matching thread. I toyed with the idea of leaving some of the 'borders' around the stars unquilted, but ultimately decided to quilt it all - and I'm really happy with that decision. I think it would have looked a bit weird to have sections unquilted amongst all the dense quilting, and I'm not sure it would have worked all that well once it was washed (something I still need to do, along with blocking it). It does make the background a little busy, but because the thread matches the solid (Cotton Couture in soft white) so well, I don't think it distracts from the stars too much. Plus the quilting is a really important design element on this quilt.

The back is an amazing print from Parisville by Tula Pink - I had just enough for the back, but not enough to match the print unfortunately. I suspect this one will hang on a wall though, so I'm not too phased (and it's the kind of print that isn't horribly noticeable when it isn't matched). I love, love, love how much the quilting shows up on the back - I used a bobbin thread matched to the top thread, and even though there are lots of different colours in there, they all blend into the print.

I used 100% wool batting in this quilt - and I am completely in love with using it. I've gradually been working my way up in terms of the loft of batting I use as I've become more confident with my quilting, and I love how much texture wool gives to quilting. I don't think I'll go back to lower loft batting now I've tried this stuff.

The stars themselves are quite sparsely quilted - I used the fabric design as a guide for the quilting in most of them, and simply stitched around some of the designs to add a bit of dimension to the stars, but still letting them pop a bit.

 Quilt Stats:

Size - 72" x 75"

Fabric - Lots of Jenean Morrison prints, along with a few Joel Dewberry and Amy Butler prints. Background is Cotton Couture in Soft White. 

Quilting - on my domestic Bernina, using a variety of Aurifil threads (40wt in the background, 50wt in the stars). 

Backing - Damask Dot from Parisville by Tula Pink

Binding - Cotton Couture in Soft White. 

Huge thanks to all of my IG peeps for your amazing encouragement during the making of this quilt (and for putting up with almost daily updates!!) As cliched as it sounds, I have loved every single second of making this - but at the same time I am relieved it is done. I have an FMQ tutorial I need to put together, and get back to working on my other projects!!

I'm linking up with Gemma's iQuilt linky party and Crazy Mom Quilts :o)

xx Jess 

My current obsession

Do you ever start a project and become completely and utterly obsessed with it? I have to admit I don't often do this - I normally have several projects on the go at once, and flit between them to keep things interesting. I have been a lot better with this over the last year or two (mostly because I've started working to deadlines for magazine quilts so I actually finish things in a reasonable time frame), but I still have a big tendency to start things and then abandon them when something more interesting comes along. Sometimes they're only abandoned briefly, other times they loiter in boxes untouched for months (or years) at a time. But sometimes a project will come along that needs to be made. Yesterday. 

My current project fits into the completely-obsessed-can't-think-about-anything-else category. I've been working on it every single night for the last (almost) three weeks and I think it's my favorite quilt ever. Ever. And if you follow me on Instagram you're probably well aware of this (considering you've been getting almost daily updates ;o) )

Anyhoo, ever since I finished making my Night Sky mini quilt last month, I'd been wanting to start a big version. I toyed with lots of different fabric options - and almost started it using a bundle of Suzuko Koseki stripes - until I had a sudden idea to make the stars into kaleidoscopes. And that's where this quilt began. 

I'm a huge fan of Jenean Morrison's work - I fell hard for her Silent Cinema collection when it came out and have bought a few pieces of most of her collections since then. For some reason I'm particularly drawn to her symmetrical prints, and have acquired quite a collection for no reason other than I love them. They're the type of prints that lend themselves to fussy cutting, but I never thought I had the patience (or desire) to fussy cut anything, so there they sat (and sat) looking pretty. I have always adored Katy's fabulous Spring Carnival cushion, but I cannot stand doing EPP (don't shoot me!) so I was a bit stumped with what to do with them. But then I bought a Sidekick ruler from the shop where I work/teach and the idea for this quilt was born.

 I spent a long night (about 6 hours) cutting the fabric for the stars (once I started I seriously couldn't stop. That first photo is that first night of cutting), and then a couple of weeks putting them together. I've been super pedantic with my seams and points in this quilt - it's the first time I've deliberately made something with the intention of entering it into a show - and I'm pretty happy with how it's come together. It isn't quite perfect - there are a few slightly dodgy points - but it's as close to perfect as I've ever come. And yes, I'm quite proud of it.

Almost all the fabrics I've used are from various collections by Jenean Morrison (lots of Silent Cinema, but quite a few of her more recent collections as well), with a couple of Amy Butler and Joel Dewberry prints thrown in as well. I didn't choose any of the fabrics based on colour, instead they were all chosen because they were symmetrical and would work in this type of quilt. They seem to all play together nicely though. I don't actually have a photo of the finished quilt top (the photo above is the layout before they were pieced together), because I started basting it literally as soon as the top was put together ;o). Because obsessed.

I've spent the last five nights quilting it, and having the time of my life. But then I stepped back from it today and wondered if it was actually too much quilting. Thanks to my IG and Facebook peeps I had a reality check that it does in fact work, and no there isn't too much quilting - but I am unpicking the paisley quilting around the small pink star, and am planning on leaving a few of the 'borders' unquilted just to limit the busy-ness a little bit. It has been loads of fun playing with the geometry of these stars, and creating secondary patterns using straight lines in and around them.

At this stage I'm only quilting the negative space (except for the couple of stars with a lot of white) and will go back and quilt the stars with matching thread once I'm finished with the background. You might have noticed I don't often use solids for the background in my quilts - but I think it's the right choice for this one. Plus I've recently fallen hard for Cotton Couture solids (this is soft white) while making my Giant Chevron quilt for the QAL - it is absolutely divine to work with and quilts SO well. So I think you might see a few more solid-background quilts from me into the future (especially since PolkaDotTea stock a brilliant selection of Cotton Couture!)

I'm hoping to get this one finished before the end of the month (so yes, it will be my Quiltcon entry), and at this rate it will happen. I really can't see the obsession wearing off before it's finished ;o)

xx Jess

 

PS a massive thank you to everyone who voted for my Breaking Storm quilt in the blogger's quilt festival - it won the large quilts category! Woohoo!!

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Breaking Storm

I've been debating whether or not to enter the Fall 2014 Blogger's Quilt Festival, hosted by Amy of Amy's Creative Side. Most of what I've worked on in the last six months I can't share yet - but I decided I would enter a few of my recent finishes, since it is such a fun event to be part of, and I've entered every festival since starting my blog three years ago. 

My first entry is my Breaking Storm quilt, which I'm entering in the Large Quilts category. This quilt was recently published in Quilters Companion's Modern Quilts special issue, and it is still one of my favorite quilts I've made. 

This quilt was inspired by the way the sky looks at the end of a big storm, with swirling clouds and bits of sun and blue sky peeking through. It is entirely made using the traditional Snail Trail block.

This is a full twin sized quilt - it measures 72" x 96". The biggest quilt I've quilted on my domestic machine, and a brilliant learning experience. I chose to quilt the 'negative space' (the various shades of grey) with a variegated grey 40wt Aurifil thread, using a swirly/pebbly design to give it lots of texture, and then quilted the coloured areas with simple straight line FMQ.

Thanks for visiting my blog, I'm looking forward to checking out all the entries in the festival!

xx Jess

Free Motion QAL - Spirals and a linky party!

Welcome to the third video FMQ tutorial in the QAL! Today I'll be showing you how I quilt spirals. This was a really tricky one to film. I think it's because I'm quilting on such a light yellow fabric, and the light was bouncing off it causing glare, which meant it was really difficult to see what I was doing. It still isn't brilliant I'm afraid - there are still a few parts where it's a bit difficult to see what I'm doing, but hopefully overall it gives you an idea of how I approach quilting spirals. You can find the video here.

I also wanted to show you how much my spirals have changed over the time I've been FMQing. I think my first attempt was on my Groove quilt, back in October 2012. This was the first quilt I tried custom quilting, rather than a simple all-over design, and it was a brilliant learning experience. I still love this quilt, but my spirals (more than the other designs I think) have evolved a lot since this one :o)

9 months (and a fair bit of practice) later, they were more like this. The main change is that I started making them wider spaced and the lines are more evenly spaced, which I prefer (and which is also totally personal.) You might find you prefer completely different looking spirals - where the concentric circles are different widths apart, or the spirals are slightly elongated for example - and these both give beautiful texture as well, so it's just a matter of taste I think.

Another six month jump (this is the end of last year), and I think I was starting to get really comfortable quilting spirals. It does take a while to build up the muscle memory - but once you have it, it takes far less concentration to quilt and make it look like you want it to.

Finally, this is one of my most recent (secret) projects. I'm really proud of the quilting on this quilt, and I can't wait to show you the whole thing :o)

So you can see, practice makes a huge impact on your quilting. I do quilt a reasonable amount (I would say at least one quilt a month at a rough guess) - but even so, I'm quite surprised at how much my quilting has actually changed over the last couple of years. So even if you're not happy with your first few attempts, it's worth persevering, because it does become easier with practice.

If you do have a chance to watch the video, I'd love to hear your thoughts on a few things. Something I'm trying to do in these videos is explain how I plan where I'm going and how I get myself out of corners - is that something that's helpful in a video tutorial? Or should I just quilt and not talk so much? I'm also wondering if the slightly higher angle is better on this one compared to the first two. I really want to keep doing these videos, but I'd like to make them as helpful as possible ;o)

I have forgotten to add a linky party to almost all my posts sorry - but I did remember today, so if you'd like to link up your progress from the QAL, or if you've quilted anything using my tutorials please link up below, and try to visit a couple of the other blogs :o)



xx Jess

Free Motion Quilting Advice - Renee from Quilts of a Feather

Today's guest post is from the super talented Renee, who blogs at Quilts of a Feather. I'm not sure when I discovered Renee's blog, but it is a constant source of inspiration. Thanks so much for putting together such a fabulous post!

Hello!  My name is Renee, I blog over at Quilts of a Feather (@quiltsnkids on IG).  I've been quilting for about 5 years now, and free motion quilting continues to be my favorite part.  I quilt on a Janome MC6300, which does not have a stitch regulator.

Let me start with my setup. I think it's important to have good setup because then you can more easily make consistent stitches and smooth quilting lines!

I always use quilting gloves and a Supreme Slider for FMQ.  The gloves give me really good grip on the quilt (which decreases stress and fatigue in my hands, arms and shoulders!) while the slider prevents the quilt from bunching up, and decreases drag/friction on the table.  It makes a huge difference!  The bottom of the slider collects dust and lint (which decreases it's stickiness, which can cause it to shift while I'm quilting=bad), so after a few uses I rinse it with cool water and let it air dry.

Machingers gloves and Supreme Slider.

I quilt with barefeet (or with just socks in the winter), which helps me better feel how much I am depressing the sewing machine pedal.  You can also see in the photo how I put the pedal in the middle of my foot, with my toes kind of hanging off.  That gives me a lot better control over the speed of my machine--I can more accurately feel how much I am depressing the pedal.

Quilting barefoot!

 Another thing to note is that my other foot is flat on the floor.  It really helps me to keep it on the floor, but often it finds it's way onto the foot of my chair, or the foot of the table--which decreases my control and throws off my posture.

In the next photos you can see how I place my hands and elbows.

Elbows resting on the table for smaller quilts.

I keep my hands open, and mostly quilt within the space between my hands, especially for smaller/tighter quilting patterns.

Working on swirls and McTavishing.

Now let's talk about quilting!  The best thing you can do is practice, practice, practice.  Experiment with how much you push down on the sewing machine pedal and how fast you move the quilt--the goal is to find a good balance between how fast you move the quilt around with how hard you push down on the sewing machine pedal.

I like using mini quilts from muslin or scraps, or orphan blocks that are around 12-18" square--this gives me plenty of room for my hands to be on the quilt, but doesn't bunch up under the machine.

Stitches fairly uniform in size!

 Ideally our hands move the quilt at a speed that is proportional to how much we push down on the pedal with our foot.  By proportional I mean that when you are moving the quilt slowly, you are only pushing on the pedal a little (slow stitches), and when you move the quilt faster you are also pushing down more on the pedal (fast stitches).

When your hands and pedal-foot work proportionally to each other, your stitches will all be the same size.  Sometimes that is tiny and sometimes that is large--it doesn't really matter, what's most important is that they are all the same!

Stitches on the left are pretty uniform and a good size for me, but on the right they got larger--which means I was moving the quilt too fast in that area.

But when they aren't consistent it means that your hands and feet aren't communicating properly.  You can see some issues in this photo:

The red circle shows where the stitches are too big (compared to most of the others) and the yellow shows where they are too small.

The inconsistent stitches happen for lots of different reasons, here are my top reasons:
1. You don't know where to move the quilt next, so your hands slow down (tiny stitches).
2. You do know where to move your quilt and move it too fast (big stitches).
3. Your quilt snags on something (mine will get pinned between my tummy and the table, or pinched between tables, or a pin will catch on the sewing machine)--and then you get tiny stitches, often followed by big stitches when the quilt is suddenly freed.
4. If you stop and then start again on a smooth line, you can sometimes cause some awkward stitches:

The yellow circle shows a spot where I stopped (needle down) and then restarted--a small hiccup in the smooth line and a few tiny stitches before I got back into my rhythm. 

I can usually avoid these little hiccups in smooth lines of quilting by only stopping and starting where there is already some stitching--so on the photo above it would be on the stem, or where the quilting lines cross.  If nothing else the other stitches in those areas hide the little hiccup.

But if I really need to stop mid-smooth line, I've found it helps a lot to do a couple of stitches in the same spot when I start again.  That seems to help my hands and feet sync up again.

My last piece of advice is to remember the bigger picture!  Here's the finished quilt from the above photos:

Butterfly Mini Quilt II

I showed you several mistakes on that quilt, but now that you see the whole thing they are really hard to find!  And most people will never notice the stitches that are too big or too small.

I hope some of this information helps!  It is a hard thing to teach over the internet with so many variables!

Quilting a sampler

Since finishing up the blocks for my Vintage Quilt Revival sampler earlier in the week, I have managed to put the quilt top together, make the back, and start the quilting (I think we can safely call this obsessed). If you follow me on Instagram, you will probably be aware of this from my blow by blow photo-spamming on Thursday. This is the first sampler quilt I've actually quilted (not the first one I've made, the first one has been sitting as a quilt top for *ahem* about eighteen months...) and it has been SO much fun to quilt. I didn't plan any of quilting on the blocks ahead of time, and pretty much made a spur of the moment decision when I got to each block. I'm a bit iffy about some of my decisions, but I think overall it works pretty well so far.

I've set the blocks two by five, with lots of negative space on each side (and the strip of blocks is offset from the centre). Because I've set the blocks right next to each other (without sashing), I wanted to use the quilting to highlight the individual blocks, and make it easier for the eye to separate them from each other.

I've used the geometry in most of the blocks to decide how to quilt them. I've used straight lines following some of the seams in the block on a lot of occasions, and tried to accentuate the star in the block as much as possible.

I really love this one. The block is called Riviera,  and I've used triple stitch (like I did in my Retro Flowers quilt). I'd forgotten how awesome the texture is - and I think it adds a great dimension to this block.

This one I'm a bit uncertain about. I like the outer triangles, but I'm not so sure about the centre. I'd love some your honest thoughts on that bit :o)

I have used a few curvy motifs as well - like the spirals sitting 'behind' the improv star, and pebbles on a few blocks. It is mostly straight line quilting in the blocks, but I figure I'll be doing a lot more curvy stuff in the negative space so it will hopefully balance it out a bit.

I am particularly excited about the amount of negative space I have to play with - and quite intimidated at the same time. I've never quilted something with such a broad expanse of open space before - I have a general idea of what I'd like to do, but a lot of that involves winging it and hopefully making it work...

So I think my Saturday night will be spent quilt wrangling. I truly am that exciting ;o)

The Fat Quarter Shop giveaway is still open (until tomorrow night) and my Giant Chevron pattern is on sale until the QAL kicks off in July. 

Have a great weekend!
xx Jess

Free Motion Quilting - a few tips

I've had a few people interested recently in how I quilt on my domestic machine, and I've been doing quite a bit of free motion quilting this week, so I thought I'd run through a few things I've learnt that can help make it easier. I am completely self taught when it comes to this stuff, so it isn't necessarily the 'right' way to do it - but this is what works for me :o)

I think the key point to make from the start is being able to move your quilt smoothly and freely through your machine makes a massive difference to how you'll be able to quilt. It makes it easier to get smooth curves on pebbles and spirals, and it makes it easier to make straight lines closer to straight (I think it is almost impossible to FMQ truly straight lines without using rulers, which is something I have not yet tried.) The first part of this post is talking about some things you can do to make moving your quilt smoothly possible, and then I'll talk about some other things I find helpful. 

I always pin baste my quilts, and tend to place a pin every 4-6". I use the seams in the quilt top as a guide, and normally pin each seam on the horizontal and vertical, creating a grid of pins.

Setting up your machine and quilt:

One of the biggest tips I have for making FMQ easier is how you position your quilt on your quilting table, and in your machine. I have quilted several really large quilts now (never a full Queen or King size, but I have quilted a few 80" square, or 96" x 72" quilts), and there are a few things I've discovered that can make it a bit easier to maneuver a big quilt in a domestic machine.  

You don't need a huge throat space to quilt big quilts. My machine has about 7.5" between the needle and the body of the machine, and I can manage about 40" of quilt rolled in this space. I wouldn't say it's easy, but the more you do it, the more you get used to handling that bulk of quilt between your machine and the needle. I personally find it easier to roll my quilt (quite tightly) in this situation, rather than scrunch it - it makes it easier to get the section I'm quilting to sit flat.  

Last November I found a sewing cabinet second hand, that has the ability to sink my machine down into the table, so the bed of my machine sits flush with the table top. This is a glimpse of my studio (aka garage sewing room.) It's a bit grotty, but it means I can close the door on the constant mess ;o) This has made a HUGE difference to how easy it is to move a quilt through my machine - not having to drag the quilt up onto my extension table makes it so much easier to move the quilt smoothly. Amy has a fantastic tutorial on how to do this to a regular table - but if you ever have the opportunity to buy a custom built table, it is seriously worth the investment. 

My biggest piece of advice here is to make sure you have as much of the quilt supported on the table as possible. This will cause less drag, and make it easier to move the quilt smoothly under your needle, which will make it easier to keep your stitch length even and avoid jerking the quilt (which will cause bumps in your quilting.) 

I always divide my quilt into four sections in my head, as in the diagram below. By starting with section 1, orientated as shown in the (slightly dodgy) hand drawn diagram, you will always have a the smallest amount of quilt within the throat of your machine as possible, and have as much of the quilt supported on the table as possible. 

Once you've finished quilting that section, turn the quilt so that section 2 is at the bottom right corner.

And again for section 3.

And finally for section four.

I tend to start as close to the centre of the quilt as possible - the centre is always going to be the hardest part to quilt, since you'll have the biggest amount of quilt within the throat space, and I like to get the hardest part out of the way first. Plus, your arms will get tired, so if you tackle the hard bit first it gets progressively easier as you move away from the centre, and you won't need to dread doing that centre part!

Quilting Tools:

There are a couple of tools that can really help make FMQ easier. 

Gloves:

I quilted for a very long time before I bought gloves for quilting - and was slightly horrified I'd left it so long. They make it SO much easier to move the quilt, and save your hands from getting sore from gripping the quilt. I use really flexible gardening gloves, with a stretchy back and grippy stuff on the fingers. I know you can get specific machine quilting gloves, but these do the trick beautifully. They're comfortable to wear, and my hands don't get sweaty. 

Supreme Slider Mat

This is the newest addition to my quilting arsenal - a Supreme Slider mat. This was my birthday present this year, and arrived on Tuesday. It's basically a really slippery mat that sits on the bed of your machine (and extension table) that makes it easier to move the quilt around under your machine. It honestly hasn't made as much of a difference as my gloves - but it does make it easier to move the quilt smoothly. 

Choosing a thread colour:

I almost always like my quilting to blend into the fabric, so I tend to choose colours that will match my fabric as closely as possible. My go to thread is Aurifil 50wt - especially soft white (2021) and dove grey (2600). 

I don't have a gigantic stash of thread - I have one or two shades of each colour. If my thread isn't a great match, and I have a choice I tend to go with the lighter shade rather than darker, as I tend to think it isn't as obvious on fabric (but other people prefer darker than lighter, so I guess it's personal preference.) 

Planning Your Quilting:

There are a few good ways to plan out what motifs you might want to use on your quilt top. For me, good quilting will enhance the piecing without distracting too much from it. I tend to use thread that will blend as much as possible for this reason - especially in background areas. 

I find a lot of inspiration for quilting motifs from the work of long arm quilters such as Krista Withers, Lisa Sipes and Angela Walters. Leah Day has a brilliant website full of ideas for quilting motifs as well.

Photograph:

Take a front-on photograph of your quilt and print out a few copies, and then use a pen or pencil to sketch out some ideas on how to fill the spaces on your quilt. This is my usual tactic for planning quilting. 

Template plastic:

Another idea is to use clear template plastic to draw out potential designs, and then place it over your quilt top so you can 'see' how it might look as a quilting idea. 

Marking Quilting Lines:

I do a bare minimum of marking on my quilts, and tend to use seam lines as a guide where ever possible. But sometimes it's nice to have a reference point, especially for straight line FMQ. There are lots of options for marking your quilt, but these are the couple of ways I do it. 

Hera Marker 

A Hera Marker is essentially a blunt plastic blade, that you can run across the quilt top to make temporary marks on your quilt (they make an indentation into the fabric). They are especially useful for marking straight lines that extend beyond quilt blocks into sashing and borders. The only negative aspect of marking with a Hera Marker is that sometimes it is difficult to see the marks, especially if you are moving the quilt toward you (ie quilting toward the back of the machine). 

Dissolvable Markers

I own a couple of dissolvable marking pens (that either fade quite quickly without any help, or require water to fade). I sometimes use them rather than my Hera Marker for straight lines, but more often for marking points - for example the diamond quilting I did on my Block Flower quilt. I marked dots along the centre of the diamonds, and aimed for these when I was quilting these areas. 

The actual quilting part:

As I mentioned earlier, the centre of your quilt is always going to be the hardest part to quilt. This is the area you'll have the most quilt in the throat space, and will have half the quilt in your lap. I tend to roll the section of quilt that is in the throat space, and sit the rolled part over my right shoulder when quilting the centre of my quilts. 

When I'm quilting, I normally sit both hands flat on the quilt top. The only time I don't do this is when I am quilting the centre part of the quilt, when I'll hold the rolled part of the quilt in my right hand and sit the other hand flat on the quilt top. 

When you're quilting it is almost always easier to move the quilt away from you, rather than pulling it toward you. There are a few reasons for this.

1. You can see where you are going more easily, and it is easier to plan out how to fill a space on your quilt with a particular motif.

2. Sewing machines are designed to pull the fabric through from front to back. Even if you drop your feed dogs when FMQing, it is more intuitive to push the quilt away from you and sewing machines seems to like it better.  

One time I ignore this 'rule' is when I'm FMQing straight lines. It is much easier to keep the lines straigh(ish) if you work top to bottom rather than side to side, but I do work in both directions (ie pulling the quilt toward me, then pushing it away) when doing straight line FMQ. 

The other big thing for me is that I stop quilting and reposition my quilt sandwich (ie make sure I have a flat area immediately between my hands) really frequently. I find I need to do it far more often near the centre of the quilt, but it becomes less of an issue toward the outside. Part of the stopping and starting is to move pins (normally a few inches before I get to them), but most of it is making sure the three layers are all sitting flat in the area I am about to quilt, and to make sure they are flat in relation to what I've already quilted (so that seam lines aren't pulled and skewed.)

I think I'll leave it there for today - this post has already reached an epic proportions! I might make this into a mini-series if anyone is interested though, and talk specifically about how I quilt particular motifs (and hopefully get some videos happening soon too!) Please let me know if there is anything specific you'd like me to talk about :o)

xx Jess