Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Machine Quilting Madness

Hello Everyone,
 
Just a quickie this morning since I'm off to class this morning.  I wanted to show my machine quilting progress on Country Sunshine.
 

I made the borders 8" wide as I planned on filling the space with plate feathers. My plan almost went in the dumpster when I had to pick out every stitch of what you see.  I checked my tension in the beginning and proceeded to merrily quilt.  The front looked gorgeous, the back was horrible and turned into a continual birds nest!  Something went wrong with the tension and I had the BIGGEST mess.  What took 20 minutes to quilt, took 2 hours and 20 minutes to rip out.  Click HERE for a link to plate feathers tutorial.

My head finally hit my pillow around 11:30pm and the top border was done.  It's 5:6am now and I'm starting in again before I head to the shop to be with my Sew'n Wild Oaks girls.

I will quilt all day tomorrow, then Thursday I head to Colusa to teach Patchwork Math and Heritage at Friends Around the Block on Friday and Saturday.   I can't wait to see the shop since it is located in a former mortuary.  I was so mad at this quilt last night, I was ready to throw it in the crematorium!  I'm better today, and no longer have such dire thoughts. For me, quilting plate feathers is like trying to rub your tummy and pat your head at the same time.  They do not come naturally at all.  Heaven forbid that I get distracted, and that is my middle name!

Off to the quilting room to get some quilting in before the sun comes up.  The girls are going to have to prop me up in class and make a coffee run or two or three.......

Soon,
Lynn

3 comments:

  1. Plate feathers...can you explain? I can see that they look different but I can't seem to figure out why. I think I'd be in tears if I had to pick out all those feathers - especially when they looked great on the front.

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  2. Gorgeous quilting! I have serious feather envy!

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  3. When I first got my long arm I quilted a hand applique quilt! I thought I was really something!!!!! Only to realize that the quilt (which was entered into a show) had the biggest birdnest in the back - Learned about tension very quickly! It took Clay and I 3 days to rip because Ms Smarty Pants did tiny circles in the entire quilt! That quilt still sits waiting to be quilted!!!!!!!!!!!

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