Hi and welcome. I've had a great relaxing week by the pool. It turns out that 20 minutes in the pool is all I need, so I'm glad that it's not my pool! 😎 I've read lots of books and am slowly putting stuff away in my studio. It was a good week and I'm slowly starting to get back into the groove. I hope that you had a great week also.
Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) in teal
I've put my teal and other blue scraps together to make a small runner. Here is a preview of the final piece. Despite not having the correct foot, I used a couple of my rulers to quilt these. I also did some FMQ because once the first line is stitched, it's relatively easy to follow it to make the subsequent lines without the ruler.
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| Teal lines made using a ruler and FMQ |
The Table Scraps Challenge for July is actually aqua, related to teal, and the theme is butterflies, so this first block is perfect.
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| FMQ following the fabric lines |
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| Quilting using an oval ruler and FMQ the centre |
I've quilted about a third of the piece. Since July's last weekend is in a couple of days, I'll be posting this finish before next week's post - so keep a lookout for it! 😁
Second Kawandi style quilt finished
I finished my second Kawandi style quilt yesterday. I really love it and it was much easier the second time around. I'm thinking of starting another one, but this time with the scraps organised by colour. The down side is organizing the scraps. That could slow me down....we'll see 😊
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| Second Kawandi style quilt finished |
Here are the two finished pieces.
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| Two Kawandi style quilts |
Here they are as seen from the back. I took advantage of the busy back to hide knots when it was too difficult to slip the needle underneath one of the fabrics. That can happen when you get closer to the middle and fabric pieces all overlap.
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| Two Kawandi style quilts, seen from the back |
What I learned
- Quilting with rulers using an ordinary darning foot is not easy and the stitching is not as even, but it can be done!
- I bought a universal foot to use for the rulers but it's too fiddly. If it's not at the perfect height it affects the tension. I got tired of fiddling around with it.
- I'll eventually buy the Janome foot but I did want to make sure that I would used the rulers first. This trial did help and I would use the rulers with the correct foot.
- It's great though that I can stitch with the ruler and then use my FMQ abilities to follow the line. Another way would be to mark the lines with a FriXion pen when it's not on solid dark colours (because they can leave a ghost line).
- I looked throughout my blog but only found one mention of quilting with rulers. I did take a virtual class through Silly Moon in March 2021 but things were so busy that I never blogged about it. I'll have to find my samples to see how I did!
- I really enjoyed making this second Kawandi style quilt.
- I made sure that my top fabrics were slightly over the edges so that the backing fabric wouldn't show.
- As I mentioned, the only time that I made a knot at the back of the piece was when it was difficult to make the knot underneath the top fabric.
- Using a busy backing helped with the knots but you can't see the stitches as well as on solid fabrics.
- Part of the joy of making Kawandi style quilts is being able to use random fabrics as you go. I'm hoping that organising the fabrics ahead of time won't take the fun out of it.
- A solution to that would be to have a few small piles of fabric sorted by colour and then dipping into them as you go. Since the fabrics are applied from the outside to the centre, this would have to be taken into account. Hopefully it won't be too complicated.
- BTW, the mosquito netting proved to be great but I'm now trying to figure out how to keep it dry when we get a storm. I did buy some plastic tablecloths lined with flannel but the wind made it useless, so I'll have to attach it somehow. I'll let you know how I do!😊
Related links
- Quilting with rulers
- Kawandi style quilting
- Mosquito netting
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to these fun linking parties.
Tips & Tutorials on the 22nd,
Monday Musings,
Design Wall Monday,
Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers,
Put your foot down,
Needle & Thread Thursday,
TGIFF,
Off The Wall Friday,
Finished (Or Not) Friday,
Patchwork & Quilts,
15 Minutes to Stitch 2024,
Oh Scrap!,
Slow Sunday Stitching,
Free Motion Mavericks
Welcome to week 491 of Free Motion Mavericks. InLinks was down but it's back up. Sorry for the delay! Thanks for linking up this week. Here are the two projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.
Gretchen of Gretchen's Little Corner has finished quilting "
Blooms" another of her smaller quilts. I love the blocks with the hexies 😊! She mostly stitched-in-the-ditch and then inside the centre yellow hexie. What a pretty quilt!
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| Baptist Fans for the borders of "Blooms" |
Frédérique finished the first of her two
Temperature quilts. This one is for her mother. I just love how she included the weather symbols and legend. She attached the legend with small Velcro dots so that it can be taken down to read the quilt.
Frédérique used some of her pretty machine stitches for the various borders in her quilt. Not only is her quilt pretty but a great reminder of the weather in 2023. From those oranges and red, it looks like the Alps got very hot!
It's now your turn!
Thank you for highlighting my quilt Blooms! I'm fairly a newbe at this machine quilting process but I am very pleased with how my projects have turned out. Who knows, maybe someday I'll even try working with rulers while quilting like you do!
ReplyDeleteHi Gretchen, you are very welcome. I really love Blooms - anything with hexies are always great! I hope that you enjoy quilting your own quilts. That's when you won't mind practicing and getting better (unless you go too fast...like me!) Thanks for linking up.
DeleteVery wise try out things before making a big investment. Sewing feet can be really expensive. Love that little butterfly, looking forward to the full reveal of your table runner. Happy stitching this week.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kate. The table runner is done and it's under my laptop as I type this :-) It's pretty cute.
DeleteBelle expérience avec les règles de quilting ! J'hésite encore à me lancer, j'ai l'impression que c'est plus une technique associée aux longarms. En tout cas tes kawandis sont très réussis !
ReplyDeleteMerci Frédérique, si les règles ne sont pas trop grandes et que ton pieds les prends bien, ça peut être intéressant. Éventuellement je veux essayer des designs plus intèressants avec les règles.
DeleteOups j'oubliais, merci pour la mise en avant de mon quilt météo et tes commentaires élogieux !! 😊
ReplyDeleteDe rien ma belle Frédérique!
DeleteYour Kawandi finish is just lovely and your quilting is always inspiring. Thanks for linking up to Tips and Tutorials!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kathleen. I'm just checking to see which post to link up this month! Take care and thanks for the party.
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