So close I can touch it: double pinwheel block

After a lot of grumbling, moaning and prevarication, the end is almost in sight for the king-sized double pinwheel commission.

All of the blocks are pieced and sewn into quarters. Rather than sewing 12 rows of 10 together I decided to split the quilt into four blocks and sew 6 rows of 5. Then all I have to do is sew the quarters together and put the border on. Simples!

Here's one of the quarters. Excuse the feet please. 

It was only when I was laying the quarters out that I realised quite how big this quilt was going to be; even without it's border on I'm struggling to find floor space big enough to lay it all out on.

Rather than do my usual all-over quilting which would be incredibly time consuming and leave the quilt rather stiff and with little drape, I've decided instead to straight line quilt it using a walking foot. I think I'm going to echo quilt the diagonals rather than the horizontal or vertical lines.

I've found the perfect Aurifil variegated thread in 4650 which is called "Leaves" apparently. All I know is that it's the right combination of red and green with a little yellow/cream mixed in. Sadly there's no blue in it but, as the key colour here was meant to be green, I can live with that.

Perhaps one day I can show you a picture of a finished quilt?!

Just a quick reminder that I'm on my migraine detox now and so all blog postings have been prepared in advance. I won't be able to check my blog for at least two weeks so I'll respond to any comments after 17th August.

Prevarication - the father of invention

Isn't it amazing what you can get done when you don't want to do a task?!

In an effort to avoid basting my latest project I've cleaned the sewing room, tidied and rearranged fabric, made other blocks...basically anything I could to avoid scrambling around on my knees on a hard floor basting. 

But by Friday night I knew that the prevarication had to come to an end. This child is going to be attending elementary school before her baby quilt is done! 

So that night I smoothed, taped, sprayed and stuck the pieced backing, batting and top together in preparation for quilting. With the horrible bit out of the way, quilting was quickly underway. 

As the blocks are drunkards path, I decided to go with an all over paisley free motion quilting quilting pattern so that the curvy lines matched the blocks. All credit to Leah Day for the quilting design (and teaching me pretty much everything I know about quilting).

 There's a distinct risk that this quilt might actually be finished this year. Eek.

FMQ - dreams and reality

I've spoken before about my great quilting dream - owning a long arm machine, or at least having a go at one. I've always wanted one of the machines but seeing the beautiful work a long armer did on my Kathy Schmidt "Towne Square" quilt just reinforced the desire.

 Until I have a house and wallet big enough to manage a long arm machine, Naomi the Janome and I are doing the best we can.

Thanks to Leah Day we've mastered lots of all-over quilt patterns including paisley, feathers, spirals and something that I nickname chrysanthemum spiral, which is a spiral with expanding petals around the outside. I've done pebbles (far too time consuming!), straight lines, stitch-in-the-ditch and even finally managed stripling ( which everyone claims is a starter pattern but I found ridiculously hard!).

An all over quilt design means I can balance the "just get it done" mentality with the "you really should practice a new design" wisdom. There's nothing better to perfect a design than having to quilt it repeatedly across a Queen sized quilt.

I haven't tried quilting within a block yet but, following on from Leah's Building Block quilt I might give it a go soon. Last quarter's Quilt Now magazine contained a great guide to FMQ with some within block quilting ideas for me to try out.

 It might even encourage me to finally baste up some of my UFOs...maybe.

Two lies and a truth about free motion quilting

I'll be the first to admit to being a novice at FMQ; I've only been trying for a few years. If you're looking for a complete, professional guide to starting free motion quilting this isn't it!

There are many great resources out their for beginners. Some you have to pay for (the incredible Angela Walters's Craftsy classes jump to mind immediately or even a class at your local quilt shop) and some are free (everything you could ever want to know is available at Leah Day's website which regularly had new videos and projects). It's all out there.

There are a few things which have jumped out at me over the last few years of learning - two of them no-one ever tells you and one which I wish I'd realized sooner.

1. You can't FMQ on any old sewing machine. Some people will tell you that you can use any machine that can sew a straight stitch and, whilst that might technically be true, in my experience that isn't true for a beginner. My baby Brother machine couldn't drop its feed dogs; instead Brother provided a little plastic plate to cover them up. Unfortunately the first time the quilt sandwich pushed against the plate, it popped up, blocked the needle, which then snapped and pinged up in my face. Twice. After dicing with an eye injury I had to admit defeat and straight line quilt instead.

2. Some designs just aren't possible on a domestic machine. Those beautiful designs you've seen on award winning quilts were probably done on a long arm machine where the quilter can access the whole width of the quilt top in one sweep. Don't get me wrong - there are lots of awesome patterns that you can achieve on a domestic machine if you can only access 10" square or so of your quilt at any one time, some patterns are going to be out of reach.

3. Now for the truth. A friend of a friend was recently playing the piano with a grace, fluidity and accuracy I could only envy. After he had finished, I said to him "there's a magic button someone on the piano that lets you play like that, right?!". "Yes", he replied "but they only show you where it is after the 700th hour of practice."

FMQ requires practice, regularly. When I started out I wanted to be able to flawlessly quilt feathers, spirals, flowers and more. And I wanted it now. No waiting. I've now grudgingly accepted that I need to keep practicing to stay good and get even better. One day I'll find that magic button, I know it's there somewhere.