I was in a rebellious mood today, determined to ignore what I "should" be doing and spend some time in the studio. Since my painting play day on Tuesday (see previous post), I've not done anything "creative" and in fact, have had one of those weeks again where interruption after interruption kept me from getting much done off my regular "to do" list. Zip, and the week was gone. So it is with great pleasure that today I can cross off both remaining items off my goals for the week: Easter in America is quilted and the journal version too!
When I last reported in on this quilt (see here), I was wondering about the proper batting. The journal size has been layered with Thermore for awhile so I started with that to test both how I wanted to quilt it and what thread to use. The Thermore was far too flat for the effect I want, so that convinced me I was on the right track thinking Hobbs wool would be the ticket. I used monofilament thread and used the edge of the presser foot as a guide to run lines about 1/4" out from the couched thread and edge of the foil. That makes those sections poof up. Click on the picture for a larger view that shows this better. I greatly reduced my presser foot tension so there wouldn't be problems with shifting. I think the spray baste holding the layers together really helped with that too. I started in the middle, ready to rip stitches and try something different if I didn't like the effect, but I pretty much had to quilt all four center areas before I had a good feel for the overall effect. I've said it before - I sure wish I could visualize the finished product better so there wouldn't be these moments of uncertainty, or downright disappointment. In this case, once I'd quilted around the outer squares, I knew this was exactly the look I wanted and that I wouldn't need to add any quilting elsewhere. And I was happy that I'd used the clear thread.
I was also pleased that although this started as such a secular rendition of a religious holiday, I got my crosses after all - don't know why I couldn't see in my mind's eye that my quilting lines would form them. Now to decide on binding...
When I last reported in on this quilt (see here), I was wondering about the proper batting. The journal size has been layered with Thermore for awhile so I started with that to test both how I wanted to quilt it and what thread to use. The Thermore was far too flat for the effect I want, so that convinced me I was on the right track thinking Hobbs wool would be the ticket. I used monofilament thread and used the edge of the presser foot as a guide to run lines about 1/4" out from the couched thread and edge of the foil. That makes those sections poof up. Click on the picture for a larger view that shows this better. I greatly reduced my presser foot tension so there wouldn't be problems with shifting. I think the spray baste holding the layers together really helped with that too. I started in the middle, ready to rip stitches and try something different if I didn't like the effect, but I pretty much had to quilt all four center areas before I had a good feel for the overall effect. I've said it before - I sure wish I could visualize the finished product better so there wouldn't be these moments of uncertainty, or downright disappointment. In this case, once I'd quilted around the outer squares, I knew this was exactly the look I wanted and that I wouldn't need to add any quilting elsewhere. And I was happy that I'd used the clear thread.
I was also pleased that although this started as such a secular rendition of a religious holiday, I got my crosses after all - don't know why I couldn't see in my mind's eye that my quilting lines would form them. Now to decide on binding...
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