Quilt marathon finished and things I learned

 

 

Vertigo-Burgoyne Surrounded-finished piecing the top

It’s all in the name. If you’ve never suffered vertigo you wouldn’t understand. If you have or do, I don’t recommend viewing for more than a glance.  I love this quilt but am one of the unfortunate souls who suffer from bouts of vertigo.  Viewing the quilt itself has no affect, photos on the other hand…  A simple solid green border, finished with a pieced top and bottom border to add length. Quilting, saving for another day.

This quilt in my opinion deserves a repeat. Next time will be batiks and a minimum of 3 fabrics. It will be larger and the border more planned. This was a scrap quilt.

 

Churn Dash-finished

The Churn Dash quilt brought me a lot of firsts. It was the first pieced quilt I had made since  I learned paper piecing. It was one of the quilts I had always wanted to make though I’m not sure why I never got around to it.

It was the first quilt I ever quilted with horizontal lines, nothing more. Every quilt that I have quilted from day one my husband Steve would say, “I don’t know why you couldn’t just stitch straight lines across the quilt all the way down”.  My response, “well it just wouldn’t look right”.  Guess what? Its not that bad and I think I may like it. My machine wheels don’t lock so I had to improvise and use the cloths pins to lock my them. There has to be a more stable way. Even though I placed the cloths pins on both sides of 2 wheels it still managed to shift a little leaving me with some wavy lines. The plan was to stitch the horizontal lines without measuring. Good thing too.  The lines range from 1/2″ – 1 1/2″ apart. Yet some start at 1/2″ and expand to 1 1/2″ where my pins allowed the wheels to roll.

I learned its much easier to unpick stitches while the quilt is loaded than say ripping seams while constructing a block. This is something I rarely do when quilting. Why? Because I am still learning to use the longarm and I don’t expect everything to be perfect. We have to start somewhere and the less than perfect stitches are a reminder of what not to do. Sometimes it takes multiple mistakes for the lesson to be learned. It’s also great to look at the first quilt I ever quilted and see how I have improved. Or be reminded what not to do.

If you would like to see the method I used for piecing these blocks view here.

Another first with thread

As a rule I use 40wt cotton thread when quilting. I did however have a cone of 40wt so-fine that needed used. It wasn’t a full cone but I decided there was enough left for no more quilting than I would be doing. Turns out I like the so-fine for quilting. When I reached the bottom 8″ of the top I ran out of thread. Here is where the unpicking came in. The last 2 rows had mega eyelashes on the back of the quilt.  Having no more 40wt so-fine I thought it best to grab 50wt so-fine in the same color instead of 40wt cotton. Turns out I can use 50wt thread to quilt with and I like it.

The final thing I learned while quilting the Churn Dash. Instead of cutting my backing to size for just one quilt, I can successfully load backing for 2 quilts in one solid piece. This was a huge time saver that I will likely do again. Next time I’ll try for 3.

Hexi quilt-finished

I’m not sure why the white looks blue in the photo. All 3 pictures I took came out the same way.

The only thing I purchased for this quilt was the backing. My batting, all 3 pieces were also large scraps. I love bonus quilts. In case you are joining me for the first time, the Hexi quilt is paper pieced. Not english paper pieced. You can find my free templates and layout directions here.

 

 

 

 

 

Nostalgia Twist-finished

This pattern is currently being tested. If you would like to see more go to the Finished Quilts link in the menu bar and click on Nostalgia Twist. Cherie from Cherie’s Quilting Journey is currently testing and sharing her quick progress.  You can also view Cherie’s progress here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love these stars – finished

I know, but what else would you call it? Truth is,  i do love these stars. This is by far the largest quilt I have made, it is also the heaviest. My cloths pins kept popping off and flying across the garage. There was only time for one quick photo and this was it, I didn’t want to clean the garage floor with my quilt after all. That droop on the right hand side, another cloths pin went flying

This quilt was paper pieced. It sat in my tote un-quilted, then it sat there quilted waiting for binding. As much as I hate to admit it, the flying geese quilts on my bed are being replaced by this. Ok, maybe I will leave just one flying geese on my bed.

 

 

 

I almost forgot to add this photo of Enzo. He claimed these quilts before I could add them to the washing  machine. Trust me when I say he did not want to give them up.

See what others are working on:

Oh scrap, Show and tell Monday, Monday making,  

Moving it forward,

Linky Tuesday

To-Do-Tuesday

WIP, WOW, Midweek Makers, 

Wednesday wait loss