Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Quilting IRL

Having taken the month of March off for quilting challenges, April's prompt for UFO Challenge over at Patchwork Times is 11. That was my patchwork crazy prompt highlighted on qwilt-qwazy-queens-and-doodle-quilt.

The FB prompt for American Patchwork & Quilting's UFO Challenge is 5. The vintage blue quilt is in the queue but I am not ready for it. I continue to winnow down my fabric stash by giving it away to thrift shops or on a quilty-orphan-adoption

I had the California holiday of Cesar Chavez on April 1 and finished a project sent off to the longarmer. The creation will be highlighted on the Nifty Novelties blog hop, my post to go live on May 24.  

Looking ahead, I have three quilts in sandwich form. My machine has gone to the shop with it skipping stitches when I use the walking foot. 

I really have to turn my attention to piecing my daughter's quilt. I won't have to worry about running out of fabric because I bought more than enough. 

Finally, I found a quilter Bernie at needleandfoot.com who encouraged her readers to post comments about their mistakes and blunders encountered while quilting. 
I have many rookie mistakes because I taught myself how to quilt. Let's dive right in!

Mistake No. 1: Not keeping to the 1/4" rule. We all know what happens, fabric skews and that pretty grid you were going for is now a mess. Threw away my first quilting attempt. 

Mistake No. 2: Misunderstanding of fabric values. My second attempt at quilting was a log cabin quilt in blue. Blue, blue, blue and more blue. I still have that one, it was also a study in free motion quilting, "study" being the operative word. Let's just say it is not an heirloom quilt. 

Mistake No. 3: Not knowing your limitations or the limitations of your machine. Now this mistake I have been doing much better on. I have given up the idea of quilting bed-sized quilts on my domestic machine. It frustrates me and I don't like to do it. Free motion quilting hurts my wrists and back. It was time to concentrate on perfecting my piecework. 

There you have it, my mistakes were mainly early ones in this craft, but like anything practice makes perfect. 

No comments:

Post a Comment