Maple Leaf Table Runner

So my mom's Christmas gift ~ the Maple Leaf table runner ~ was a little late.  You see, I had left myself just enough time to make it before Christmas, but then my mom and I got this great idea to make hand-made gifts for almost everyone with whom we exchange gifts.  That blew my well-planned thought I could eke by schedule into total chaos.  My mom graciously agreed to be patient about receiving her own hand-made gift.

I consoled myself that since the table-runner was seasonal, for use in the Fall, she would still receive it well in advance of when she would be using it.

I spent more time quilting it than I did piecing it.  As I've become more comfortable with free motion quilting, it seems with every project, I feel compelled to try something new, which also tends to make the process longer.

My mom has found a way to use the table-runner now.  It now resides on the back of the sofa where she can enjoy it.

She has told me that for next Christmas, she would like a table-topper like the ones I made for P. at The Way I Sew It, and my cousin, Lori.  To that end, I have left the Christmas fabrics out and will start on it as soon as I am done with the baby quilt that must be completed by April. Next year, her gift will be on time!

I'm linking up at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Click on the button below, and join in the fun!

Edit: Although I knew Elizabeth at Such a Sew and Sew was having a February Finishes linky party, I didn't realize I could link up already.  I thought it would be at the end of the month.  Apparently, it is ongoing.  So, I'm linking up there too!

The Straggler

I am making this Maple Leaf table runner for my mom for Christmas.  Shush!  I'm well-aware of the fact that it's late ~ horribly late.

When my mom saw the table topper I made for my cousin, she had to have her own, but like, longer.  Hence the table-runner.

The great thing about leaving the table-runner for last, and then dawdling over it, is that it gave me time to concentrate on my free motion quilting. Most of the "dawdling" was planning the quilting.  The actual quilting I did over a two day period at 20-30 minute intervals.  

I did several motifs on the runner ~ pebbling, a wind inspired swirl on the leaves themselves, and a very simple try at echo-quilting on the background.  Overall, I'm quite pleased.

As with everything one practices, my free motion quilting is improving.  I'm more confident; more adventuresome.  That said, I'll admit that while I am getting better at regulating my stitch length compared to where I started, it could still use further improvement.

I'm just down to doing the binding.  Life is good!

I'm linking up with 15 Minutes with Kate and WIP Wednesday (for the first time ever).  Join the fun!

Oops!

Some free motion quilting adventures fall into the undesirable category.  Having the corner of your backing tucked under and quilting it down as in the photo below is one of them.  Sigh.  

And the leaves looked really good too.....  Rip, rip, rip.

Just as an aside, another thing I've learned is that if you're going to use multiple colors of thread, it may be a good idea to go with a wildly colored backing.  As you can see the non-white thread shows up brightly on the white background.  Not all of my quilting is that pretty either.  However, this quilt will go on my bed, so most people won't know what the back side looks like except me.  (And of course, all of you, because when I'm done, I'll probably post a picture of that too.)

Adventures in Free Motion Quilting

Although the Pansy Sampler, is not the first quilt in which I've done free motion quilting, it is the first in which I decided to be brave enough to experiment, test my limits, try new patterns.  A sampler quilt is a good vehicle in which to do this, because the variety of blocks offers different challenges.

As of the taking of this photograph, all but two blocks are complete.  Still have a number of purple frames to quilt, about half the sashing, and all of the external borders.

(Click on any photograph to see more detail.  The blogger resizing has taken out much of the texture.)

I had one picture block in the quilt ~ this Sunbonnet Sue.  I cannot take credit for the block itself; many of the blocks came in a block exchange, and Sunbonnet Sue was one of them.  I saved quilting this block for near the last, in order to improve my accuracy enough to do the block justice.  I quilted around each of the stones in the wall, each of the squares in the trellis, and all of the pansies.



Quilting on the pansy fabric itself has proven to be a challenge.  The largish print tricks my eye and prevents me from making accurate arcs, etc.  This block shows my attempts at making a quilted "flower" on the largest section of pansy fabric.  It is less than stellar.  Although I've tried a variety of things, quilting around the individual pansies has looked the best.  It's not difficult to do.

I've done free motion leaves in all of the purple frames.  It's a good FMQ design to use, as it's quite forgiving.  However, practice really does make perfect. Despite being a forgiving design, over the course of the quilt, my skill with this pattern has increased markedly.

It is in this block that I tried pebbling for the first time.  I often study Wendy's work for inspiration.  Much of what she does is too far beyond my capability, but pebbling was not.  I was very pleased with the result. 

My favorite quilting motifs are the symmetrical designs as shown in the purple sections below.  They are also the most difficult to do.  The interesting thing is that I've noticed when I merely glance at this block, I think the quilting looks pretty nice.  However, if I stop to study it, then I see all of its flaws ~ and there are many. 

The morning that Eric took all of these pictures for me, Molly Baggins could not help but walk across the quilt ~ usually on the very block he was trying to photograph.  Finally, she chose a spot and made herself comfortable.

If I Can Do Free Motion Quilting, You Can Too!

I've been "going big" (as Elizabeth would say) with free motion quilting the last week or so, experimenting in earnest.  It's time to talk about what I've learned.  I'm hoping I can encourage other free motion newbies to get beyond the intimidation.

1.  Have the right machine for the job.  While quilters do free motion quilting on all kinds of sewing machines from standard home models to longarms, I wasn't able to be successful on my standard sewing machine.  Last year, I attempted free motion quilting on my trusty little Kenmore.  While it is work to shove a big quilt through a standard harp, it can be done.  The issue that made it impossible for me to succeed on the Kenmore is the fact that the Kenmore just wouldn't go slow enough.  If I slowed down enough where I could I manage, the Kenmore stalled.

For me that meant an upgrade to a Juki TL98Q, which is considered a mid-arm.  While the Juki will do 1500 stitches per minute, it will also crawl.  Very good for a free motion quilting newbie.  I realize a lot of FMQ videos show the quilters zipping through the motions at high speed.  This is not appropriate for newbies.  To me, that's like a new driver starting out learning  to drive on the freeway.  Being able to go slow while you build control and confidence is a must in my opinion.  Just to be clear, I'm not dissing standard machines.  If your standard machine can do the job, that's great.  I'm just saying my standard machine wasn't up to the job.

2.  Feathers are the most forgiving FMQ design that you can do after stippling.

You probably don't believe me. If someone had said that to me before I tried feathers, I would have thought she was nuts. Surely a design so beautiful and intricate has to be hard. Nope! Not if you use the Hooked on Feathers technique. Besides the fact that the technique is simple and straightforward, there are other considerations that make these feathers a very forgiving design: 1. They do not have to be perfectly symmetrical to look good; 2. They do not have to be uniform in size to look good; 3. The shape of the feather can vary from rather flat to rather round all in the same design, and it still looks good.

Still don't believe me? Study these close up shots, and you'll see that my feathers are far from perfect.  The feathers are not always shaped exactly the same, are not perfectly symmetrical from one side to the next, and are not particularly uniform.

 Yet the overall effect is still pretty darn good.

3.  Symmetrical designs, even thought they don't appear as intricate as feathers, require more control and concentration than feathers.  Before I actually started experimenting, I thought the little motifs in the following block would be easier than the feathers.  Nope, they are more difficult, because a certain amount of uniformity and symmetry is necessary.

That said, they are still more forgiving than you might expect.  They don't have to be perfect to look all right.  If you click on the picture to see it bigger, you'll be able to see what I'm saying.

Now here is an irony for you.  I started out using thread that matched the fabric as well as I could, thinking that if I had a "craptastic" spot, it would be less likely to show.  That is true.  However, I found that I could see so much better if there was a contrast between the fabric and thread, and that made me less likely to have a craptastic spot.  I'm still debating which is the best way to go.

Another irony is that the focus fabric in this quilt--the pansy fabric--is one of the most difficult for me to quilt.  First off with its several bright colors, I can't see my thread in the pattern as I quilt.  Secondly, the curved lines of the flowers "interfere" with my visualization the curved lines of the motif.  Something weird happens in my brain, that I don't think would occur if the motif was composed of all straight lines.  However, since the thread doesn't show much on the pansy floral, the craptastic spots aren't at all noticeable, so I'll keep on plugging away.  It is getting easier.

I hope this post helps other FMQ newbies to feel a bit braver.  I think the crux of what I'm trying to say in this post, is that perfection is not a requirement.  You don't have to quilt like Wendy at Ivory Spring to achieve decent looking quilting.  And the thing of it is, if you don't get started, you never will quilt like Wendy.  Don't be afraid to take that first step.  Who knows maybe there is one among us who can eventually achieve that type perfection if only we give it a shot.

Okay, you more experienced Free Motion Quilters, any other observations that you can add?

First Foray Into FMQ Feathers

Two nights ago with the help of my mom (Thanks Mom!), I pin-basted the Pansy Sampler Quilt. The pin-basting wasn't quite as tedious as usual, because as I pinned, I kept studying the various blocks imagining how I would apply my new found FMQ knowledge obtained from the books, Free Motion Quilting Made Easy, and Hooked on Feathers, which I blogged about here. 

So last night, I shoved the Pansy Sampler into the Juki and mentally psyched myself up.  Yep, I felt totally dangerous!

I guess the psyching up worked, because I jumped in deep.  It wasn't my intention to start out with feathers, although I was most anxious to try them.  However, there is only one block with a black background in the sampler, and the Juki was already loaded up with black thread, and I had planned feathers for that block.....  I took it as a sign.

Here is where I started.  The feathers don't look quite as pretty as those in the book, but for my very first attempt, I'm not dissatisfied.

(Sorry the pictures look washed out, but I have a feeling the quilting might be hard to see without the flash.)

Then I moved to a larger section in the background.  My original intent had been to fill the space with ever larger feathers as I moved from the center outward, but after I got to a certain size, making the feathers seemed a bit more difficult.  I decided larger feathers would be a different skill for a different day, and so I brought the motif back in at the top.  So far, so good.



The only problem is that I wanted the background totally filled, so I made some feather "sprouts" off to each side



It took me about 45 minutes to do these two little sections, but I could tell it was getting easier the more I did it, so I suspect it will go faster as I get more practice.  The other consideration time-wise, is that I didn't have to do any marking at all to create these intricate looking feathers.  That is definitely time saved.  Frankly, even with hand-quilting, I've never done any quilting this intricate because I didn't want to take the time to mark the quilt.  (I think I could use the same principles for making feathers in hand-quilting too.) 

I've always loved making tops, but got bogged down at the quilting phase, because I wasn't able to create extravagant designs on the machine, and hand-quilting takes a very long time.  I have a feeling that is all about to change.  I am ecstatic.

The Quilting Gods are Laughing

"While you're making plans, God is laughing." I ran across this quote a few weeks ago. Tried to locate it on the Internet this morning so I could quote it accurately and give the proper credit, and darn if I can't find it. (More Quilting Gods mischief? You do know the Quilting Gods walk among as cats, don't you?) I believe the quote was attributed to a Jewish proverb.

My plight, which I will get to momentarily, reminds me of that old quilter's joke:

A quilter dies and when she re-awakens, she finds herself in a huge room full of thousands of bolts of the most beautiful fabric she's ever seen. She turns to a woman sitting at a table nearby, and says, "Oh my, this must be heaven!" However, the woman just glumly shakes her head, and replies, "No, this is hell. There are no scissors."

My problem? Well, it's like this: I've injured my left shoulder somehow. It's a mystery. I'm at that age where one can sustain injuries and have no clue as to what caused them. Yes, that's annoying enough in of itself. However to tie my situation back with the joke above, I have a new Juki TL-98Q--and I can't use it! Machine quilting is the one thing that notches up the pain on the injured shoulder big time.

I've tried to ignore the sore shoulder since I'm finally getting to the place with my free motion quilting where, although I'm still very much a novice, I'm gaining a bit of confidence, and finding it mostly fun rather than terrifying. Heck, the darn shoulder got injured on its own, why should I pay attention to it? Ten days later, and it still feels as bad as on the day the problem first cropped up; that's why.

So now my time in the sewing room is spent machine-piecing on the little Kenmore, and stealing surreptitious glances at the Juki. I swear when I pause to press a seam, I can hear giggling.

Progress on Free Motion Quilting

I'm a free motion quilting newbie, doing free motion quilting on my first quilt. I'd intended that the first quilt be one that I would keep for myself, knowing that my initial attempt would be less than perfect (despite practice). However, it didn't work out that way. Instead my first attempt is on a quilt for a friend.
How did this happen? First off, I'm a slow quilt-maker. Due to time-constraints and the fact that I have a tendency to go off on tangents, it normally takes me about a year to complete one quilt from start to finish. Even knowing this, silly me, I volunteered to make not one, but two quilts for friends of mine, a couple, Robynn and Matt. I gave Robynn her quilt for her birthday earlier this year. (You can view it here.) I machine quilted it using straight-stitching, decorating it with stars and squares. All that turning--I swore never again!

In the meantime, I got a new sewing machine, a Juki TL-98Q, that is perfect for free motion quilting. So here I am now, ready to quilt Matt's quilt. I can't face any more straight-line quilting (unless the lines really are to be straight--no turning the quilt), and I don't feel like I should take the time to quilt another quilt before I do Matt's. After all, it's been nearly two years since I started the two quilts. So, I took a deep breath, and decided to free motion quilt. Just something simple.

I don't yet know how I'm going to quilt the other block in this two block quilt.

As expected, I'm running into the same problems that I expect confronts most new FM quilters. My stitch length changes from day to day and from minute to minute. I can go forwards and backwards better than I can go from side to side. I find that if I can go faster, the quilting looks a bit smoother, but I can also run into trouble much quicker too. All in all though, I'm not disappointed in this first attempt.

I've found that using gloves does help the process. If anyone has any other great tips, please don't hesitate to leave them in the comment section. I can use all the help I can get. :-)

And last, but not least, here is this week's bunch of completed New York Beauty blocks:
I'll be linking up for Sew & Tell Fridays at Amylouwho's. Drop by and check out what everyone else has been up to this week. :-)