May 23rd
2007
Another one bites the dust!
No, I haven’t started listening to old rock from Queen, I’ve just finished another UFO! Woohoo! I had a bad design moment with some fusible web a week or so ago while I was working on the Feathered Lone Star with the bird embroidery, and now I have to start the embroidery part all over again. URGH! But that’s another rant for later. I decided to put it all back in it’s little box for a bit, and finish up the Irish Chain quilt that I’ve been working on. It was getting close to done, so I decided I could use the “boost” that comes from finishing a project right about now. So here it is:
A detail view of the main motif:
And my favorite part of the quilting, the heart chain border:
That little border was super easy, and it looks so elegant. It fit nearly perfectly too, since the repeat lined up with the squares in the chain, with only a little fudging to fit at the corners. I still have to clip thread tails off of the back, and it needs a label. I have to think of a name for it before I can label it though, and nothing is coming to mind immediately here.
I did think in the beginning that I would stipple around the motifs in the large open spaces, but my friend Brenda said “don’t do it,” and I really didn’t need to do it, especially since this is just going to lay around the house and keep someone warm. This quilt was originally a class sample from years ago, so it’s good to have it finished finally. This quilt really became the “get used to free motion quilting on the Bernina 440″ quilt. The Bernina and I are fast friends now, but I still pulled out the Pfaff to put the binding on. I just wasn’t willing to try to put binding on in my usual way without my dual feed on the Pfaff. And why should I? That is why I’m keeping both machines, after all…:)
Edit: Oops! Forgot to share the stats on this quilt: cotton fabrics, Hobbs PolyDown batting (using it up so I can switch to wool!), quilted with two colors of #100 silk thread on top, Aurifil 50/2 cotton Mako in the bobbin.
Posted by Nadine in Quilts, Quilting, UFO's |
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6 Comments »
Comment by Kelly
May 23, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Hi Nadine,
Still making friends with my 440. It isn’t as easy as I thought, but I know eventually I will find my rhythm. (For the money I spent, I better!) This kind of reminds me of when I got Rocket Shoes in 1959 or so. I thought I would be able to leap like on the commercials and jump over tall buildings. Not so much!
Anyway, the quilting in the close-up pictures - did you use the free motion foot, the BSR, or what?
Kelly
Temple City, CA
Comment by Nadine
May 23, 2007 at 4:17 pm
The quilting on this is all without the BSR, just the regular #24 free motion foot. I don’t use the BSR! I’ve never taken it out of the box, actually. The thing about it is (IMO) that if you already know how to free motion quilt fairly well, you just end up fighting with it. That’s how it was for me, anyway. If you don’t already know how to free motion quilt, it can shorten the learning curve considerably, I suspect. For me, it would have meant learning all over again, to learn to work with the BSR instead of against it, and I really didn’t need to do that.
When I settled on the 440, I was really just shopping for the light, the free motion foot (not the BSR), and the other odds and ends like the magnifier option. I could have gotten all of that with the 430, but I figured the 440 would hold value better if I ever wanted to sell it later, because of the BSR.
What kind of machine did you have before the 440, and did you free motion quilt with it??
Comment by Angela
May 23, 2007 at 6:35 pm
A lovely quilt that I’m sure will be loved and cuddled under — and don’t those finishes really boost your morale?
Comment by Nadine
May 23, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Thanks Angela! Oh yes, they do indeed provide the boost. I spent the afternoon clipping the thread tails off the back, and then I changed the machine around and set it up for machine embroidery so that I could get back to those birds!
Comment by KellyV
May 23, 2007 at 11:19 pm
I had a 1090 (Bernina) - a wonderful, dependable workhorse. I free motioned quilted, but was never happy with the tension. It always looked floaty on the back. The tension is definitely better with the 440, but you are so right. Learning to use the BSR has a learning curve. My machine teacher said most people outgrow it in time.
I did get the magnifiers and although they tire my eyes, I loved using them for machine zig-zag applique on my last quilt.
Your quilting is much, much better than mine and that is one reason I enjoy your blog so.
Kelly
Comment by Nadine
May 24, 2007 at 6:25 am
Kelly, did your machine teacher mean that you outgrow the BSR in time, or that you outgrow the learning curve?? Have you tried free motion quilting without it (I realize that the BSR was probably why you bought the 440, but you could try…)?
I was thinking that I’d use the magnifiers for micro stippling, but as I haven’t done any of that yet since I bought the machine, I haven’t really used them yet. They’ll probably tire my eyes as well…
Thanks for your kind comments about my quilting. I think it’s just all about practice, practice, practice, and at some point it all comes together and works! That being said, I still occasionally have bad machine quilting days, where nothing works as it’s supposed to. I’m sure everyone does!
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