Nammie to 7

Great job! You're hooked. Welcome to the world of quilting.

jbj137

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*** Really pretty.
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soppauleg

Hi Shewanders... I just joined this board this morning, and have the same questions as you do. I'm about to finish my first quilt top, but I don't want to screw it up with the quilting part. Exciting and scary at the same time, isn't it? BTW, it looks great!

Watson

Wonderful job!
As it isn't a huge quilt, I would sandwich it using 505 basting spray. You can search it and find lots of threads on how to do that on this board.
I'll leave it to others to help you with the machine quilting except to say that I rarely use a walking foot, so if you can't get one, it won't be the end of the world, as long as your basting is smooth and strong, IMO.

Watson

Jordan

You made a beautiful quilt top. I think your future holds alot of quilts that you will love to make. I send all of my quilts out to be quilted so can't help you there. I do know a walking foot helps and your top may be small enough that you are able to quilt it yourself. Good Luck.

redstilettos

you did some nice piecing for a first quilt. Great job and welcome to the club!

Maybe stitching in the ditch would be workable for both a skill-level and machine wise (no walking foot). I have seen plenty of people successfully quilt without one, but have heard it is easier with one.

Either way congrats and let us know how it turns out!

DogHouseMom

Pretty top! Congratulations!

Please please please ... do yourself a big favor and make some practice sandwiches (12" X 12" is sufficient) using the same fabric weight, same batting, same thread, and same needle size that you plan on using on the quilt. then practice the quilting design on the practice sandwiches.

I'm an intermediate/experienced quilter and I still make a practice sandwich with same fabric/batting/thread/needle combo with every quilt ... and every quilt design (if multiple designs/threads on a single quilt).

the sandwiches help me work in "muscle memory" for the quilt design, and even more important - it helps me work out tension/needle size issues on the practice sandwich before I make a mistake on my quilt.

Also, if the practice sandwich shows that you have "issues" or "changes" that you would like to make ... make ONE change at a time only. For example; your thread is breaking a lot. Change one thing at a time ... re-thread the machine completely - test sew. Change the needle - test sew. Change thread - test sew. Change tension - test sew. And so on, until you have eliminated the problem. Every combination of fabric/batting/thread/needle/top tension/bottom tension can change the final outcome.

Shewanders

Thanks so much for all the tips, encouragement and positive feedback! I hatched the idea of making this quilt when my best friend became pregnant with her first 14 months ago. I somehow had the idea in my head that it would take forever to cut and piece, so the fabric sat in a bin for about a year. I had a few days off after Christmas and decided to finally tackle it. So surprised to find it goes together really quickly!

I think I will make a sample "sandwich" and try quilting that before attempting the larger quilt. I will look into the spray basting as well.

For those who predicted more quilts in my future, I have already started collecting fabric for 3 others I want to make! My main hobby is gardening, and quilting gives me a great rainy season pastime. I love textiles, color, design and am a bit of a perfectionist - seems like quilting is a great fit!

cashs_mom

Congrats on the nice quilt top! Good job.

I just did a quick search online and it looks like you could find a reasonably priced walking foot the your machine. Check them out. A walking foot makes lots of isn't essential, but it does make things easier.

minibarn

You did a great job! I really like the colors you chose.