The quilt went together quickly, but as things go, the pieced top sat there on the guest bed for quite some time as other quilts took precedent. Finally, I got around to sitting down and marking the quilt out for the ruler work. Marking a quilt is my least favorite part of quilting. During this time I saw and followed a link that someone had put up on the FaceBook longarm group page to a stencil company that sold stencils and pounce. I have never used pounce before but it seemed like an incredibly quick way to mark a quilt. So, I quit marking my quilt the old fashioned way and waited for my package to arrive. It finally came and I followed all the directions and got the pounce into the pounce pad and was all ready to go. I have to say the pounce does go on quick, BUT and this is a big BUT, the pounce comes off just as quickly when you turn the longarm on. It seems that the vibration of the longarm bounces it right off. Not only does it bounce right off but it bounces UP AND INTO your lungs. I swear my lungs hurt for an entire day. The package directions tell you that if you have this problem you need to spray the pounce with hair spray. Hmmmm, no thanks. I just didn't want to spray the quilt and me and the longarm with hairspray, so, off the stencils and pounce and pounce pad went to EBay and they are now in someone else's home wreaking havoc to someone else's lungs. So, then I ordered a marking ruler that had one inch slots. This also sounded great and a much quicker solution than just measuring things out using a traditional ruler. The marking ruler arrived in the mail and I tried it. It said that most marking pens and chalk pencils worked with it. I have to say the going was slow as the marking pen fit well except for the very ends of the slots where the slots got slightly tighter for some reason. And when I had to switch to chalk for the darker fabrics the chalk broke off on those slightly tighter ends. So, after marking two rows of the quilt and going through chalk like crazy, since it kept breaking, I thought there has to be an easier way. It's just math. Right? Why not do it on the longarm without marking the quilt beforehand and just figure it out as I go. So, that's what I did. I just used my little sewing ruler that I still have from seventh and eighth grade sewing class and started my circle a precise 1/4 inch from the bottom and side of my block and kept using my little ruler to measure (not quilt with) as I went and it worked perfectly! I didn't need pounce, or hairspray, or marking rulers or markers or chalk or a visit to the doctor for pounce inhalation. Yay!
I also learned, after doing 250 orange peels how to fudge them to fit perfectly into each square. Each square was supposed to be 10 inches square but (blame the piecer) each square was slightly different. Some were the magic ten inches and some were 1/8 of an inch or so off. In my defense, when I stitched up the quilt I wasn't being that precise because I knew this would be a practice quilt, so I just zipped through it. Actually, now that it happened I'm kinda glad it did because it made me learn the "art of fudging". All the "art of fudging" requires is a slight turn of the ruler "here" and a slight turn back "there" but you have to know just where and how in order to keep that next circle on track. When "fudged" the circles get a tiny bit elongated, but not that you can tell. And if you didn't correct them then the line of stitching for the circle would extend out into that black sashing and show like crazy. When you look at the quilt when it's done your eye just sees perfectly fit in circles. But if you hadn't fudged and the light color thread was in the black sashing the eye would pick that up right away. Hence, the "art of fudging" is required.
You know, I often think I want a Q-Matic. Especially at times like this when it takes forever to do ruler work for 250 orange peels. But then it hit me, if I had positioned a Q-Matic orange peel computer design into my slightly off squares then the stitching would have gone into the sashing because the Q-Matic doesn't "fudge". Well, unless you go in and work wonders with the program. So, I think I'm happy without having Q-Matic. It makes me become a better quilter because I have to learn how to quilt the things I want and not depend on a computer to do it for me. AND it saved me $13,000.00.
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| Can you tell it's Christmastime? I decorated my longarm! That's Max, the Longarm Elf❣️ |
I also learned something else with this practice quilt. Black thread is cRaZy wicked to work with. It goes along just fine and then, BAM, the machine just doesn't like it. I looked it up and they say that the problem is that black thread has the most amount of dye in it than any other color thread and gets read differently by the machine. It also requires a different tension. So, I had to change my bobbin tension each time I switched out to the black thread. It makes no sense to me because on my regular sewing machine black thread sews just fine, thank you. But on the longarm it would sew for hours just fine and then go all bonky. Even though bonky is not a word, I think bonky describes it. So, I learned a useful lesson for when I use black thread in a quilt that matters.
This is the second quilt that I've buried my threads in. I know, I know, it was a practice quilt ... so why on earth did I bother to bury my threads? Well, because I was practicing burying my threads, that's why! I had used a Spiral Eye needle on the quilt before this (I haven't blogged that quilt yet because it's a present that hasn't been gifted yet.) and I really loved using it. The other self-threading needles I had tried just frustrated me to no end. With the Spiral Eye the thread wraps right into a slot in the side of the needle and works like a charm. The only problem I had was using it where there were a lot of seams together. I was using the SE-24C, which is recommended on the Spiral Eye site for burying threads, so, I wrote and asked the inventor of the needle, Pam Turner, if she could recommend a slightly smaller and sharper needle for that. She suggested her favorite needle, which is the SE-6, so I ordered that. When it came in the mail, Pam had graciously sent me a few other sizes to try out too. I used the SE-8 for binding the quilt and that worked great. And I used the SE-6 on the quilt for burying threads and it just slid through every seam. It's very difficult for me to see to thread a needle, so, I love this product!
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| The Spiral Eye Needle SE-6 can be purchased at spiraleyeneedles.com |
The only other problem I encountered with this quilt was caused by user error. I took the quilt off the frame and laid it out to see the back and realized that I had skipped half a square of orange peels. Makes you wonder how that happened, doesn't it? I did half and then what? Wandered off? So, I had to put it back on the longarm and fix it. Yet another valuable lesson learned ... I will go back and check each row or portion of the quilt that I work on from now on to make sure it's all quilted before moving on next time.
I tried a different batting on this quilt. I used Quilter's Dream 'Dream Blend' which is 70% cotton and 30% polyester. Since this was a practice quilt I thought I'd try a different batting in it and see how it washed up. I had not pre-washed any of my fabric to begin with. The quilt was 57.5" X 57.5" before washing and 56" X 55.5" after washing. Does anyone know why a quilt loses more on one side than the other? There must be a technical reason for it.
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| Not quilted versus quilted. |
I liked the batting and I'll probably use it again. I try to use batting according to how the quilt will be used and how I want the quilting to look. If it's a snuggly quilt I'll use Quilter's Dream Orient which drapes like a blanket. And if I want the quilting to not get all crunched up from washing then I'll use Quilter's Dream polyester and not cotton. I used the Quilter's Dream cotton once and didn't like the amount of shrinkage. It was way more then the 1 to 3 percent that they stated on the package and that was with pre-washed fabric. So, I'm trying out the cotton blends now to see if I like them better.
I used Isacord thread in four different colors, Midnight, Starfish, Tropicana and some sort of soft blue (the label fell off so I don't know its cutesy name). I love stitching with Isacord. It's 40 weight so it shows off the quilting and it pairs well in the bobbin. Since this was a practice quilt I tried an experiment with the thread. I used matching bobbin thread instead of just one blendable color for the backing. So, one row is pink on the back, the next is blue and the next is peach with the sashing done in black. I wanted to see what that would look like on the backing. I have to say, as the backing started coming up and over the take up bar I winced and thought to myself, "Good thing this is a practice quilt!" But actually, when I took it off the frame it looked kinda nice when you saw it in it's entirety. Of course, the black shows every tiny mistake against the peach backing, but I actually was pretty good at getting all the lines and points to bat up to one another. I'm not sure I would do it again, using black, but maybe with the softer colors.
The ruler I used was the tiniest circle from the BERNINA longarm rulers ... 1.5 inches. I used it for the 250 orange peels and also the design in the sashing. If I don't use it for awhile, I can't say I'll miss it. That's one tiny little ruler to hold on to for hours on end.
The hand painted batik medallions look like snowflakes to me and wouldn't you know it we got a snowstorm as I was quilting this. It was that heavy, wet, what I call - heart attack, snow. So, for the first time in over forty years I shoveled snow ❄️ ❄️ ❄️ and then came in and quilted snowflakes.
Where, oh where, do practice quilts go? Well, although I like the individual medallions on this quilt, I don't really like the medallions when they are pieced all together. Honestly, these colors are just not my thing, so, I'm just gonna drop this little practice quilt in the garage. Our moving blankets from the moving truck that brought us here ten years ago have slowly and magically disappeared so this quilt will get plenty of use as a working blanket out there, under cars, on the grass, things like that. It will be much appreciated by my husband.
This little quilt gave me lots of practice. I can truthfully say I mastered the art of the orange peel 🍊 AND the art of fudging.
Remember to pick up a needle and thread and quilt some love into your world❣️
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