Caley's Adventure in Quilting
02-16-2021, 07:35 AM
#22
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2020
Posts: 233
Phyllis, Thank you so much.
My experiment making a table runner is finished. It consists of five 12 inch square blocks. They were made when I was first learning how to piece.
My quilting consists of diagonal squares in the center part, and long curvy work done on the borders.
Since I still am having troubles with free motion quilting, I just used a regular foot, with the feed dogs up on the machine.
I carefully moved the fabric sandwich along the curved lines I drew on the fabric with a heat erasable pen. I think the curved lines came out fairly nicely for never having done anything like this before on a quilt.
Making the binding strips wasn't a problem, which I was happy accomplishing without the problems on my previous attempts. But when I got to the joining of the ends, I just couldn't figure things out, even aver watching several videos, and trying to duplicate what I saw..
The problem probably was caused by my bad memory. I had forgotten how wide my binding strips had to be, so I made it two inches. I then laid it down on the edge of the quilt top, and sewed a quarter inch seam along the edge to bind it to the sandwich.
After that I pressed the binding fabric over.
Then I turned it all over, and folded what fabric was left in half, and then folded that onto the bottom of the quilt sandwich.
I sewed the binding onto the bottom. I left one foot between the ends of the binding. That's when I couldn't figure out how to join the two ends. I ended up just doing a straight 90 degree stitch, instead of the bias 45 degree stitch that was required.
The corners also suffered because of my bad memory.
I went back to YouTube, and finally found a video that I think I understand, and discovered how bad my memory was. I guess you have to do this binding thing quite a lot before the technique stays in your memory.
Even with the myriad of imperfections and mistakes, I still like the results. It's not something I would gift to another person, but it will work just fine along my old dresser top.
My experiment making a table runner is finished. It consists of five 12 inch square blocks. They were made when I was first learning how to piece.
My quilting consists of diagonal squares in the center part, and long curvy work done on the borders.
Since I still am having troubles with free motion quilting, I just used a regular foot, with the feed dogs up on the machine.
I carefully moved the fabric sandwich along the curved lines I drew on the fabric with a heat erasable pen. I think the curved lines came out fairly nicely for never having done anything like this before on a quilt.
Making the binding strips wasn't a problem, which I was happy accomplishing without the problems on my previous attempts. But when I got to the joining of the ends, I just couldn't figure things out, even aver watching several videos, and trying to duplicate what I saw..
The problem probably was caused by my bad memory. I had forgotten how wide my binding strips had to be, so I made it two inches. I then laid it down on the edge of the quilt top, and sewed a quarter inch seam along the edge to bind it to the sandwich.
After that I pressed the binding fabric over.
Then I turned it all over, and folded what fabric was left in half, and then folded that onto the bottom of the quilt sandwich.
I sewed the binding onto the bottom. I left one foot between the ends of the binding. That's when I couldn't figure out how to join the two ends. I ended up just doing a straight 90 degree stitch, instead of the bias 45 degree stitch that was required.
The corners also suffered because of my bad memory.
I went back to YouTube, and finally found a video that I think I understand, and discovered how bad my memory was. I guess you have to do this binding thing quite a lot before the technique stays in your memory.
Even with the myriad of imperfections and mistakes, I still like the results. It's not something I would gift to another person, but it will work just fine along my old dresser top.
02-17-2021, 06:19 AM
#24
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Springfield, IL
Posts: 138
Thanks, I think, for explaining the problems. As a beginning quilter, I never know which of the mistakes to just problem solve and make it look okay. Yours is way beyond okay. And maybe that is what quilting is all about. We have a vision but rarely for us beginners does it ever look or feel like we envisioned.
02-17-2021, 09:22 AM
#25
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2020
Posts: 233
SusieQOH, Yes, the both of you are correct. We have a vision of perfection, but that rarely happens, unless you have something that automates everything. Then, that takes the fun out of the endeavour.
pbraun,, Welcome to quilting. You'll do just fine. I started with basically never sewing anything, except by hand in the military when I needed a uniform fixed
Just watch a lot of videos, ask questions, and then sit back and think about what that information can do for you. Pick what seems the easiest way for you, as there are usually dozens of ways of doing things.
But the most important part of any hobby is just to have lots of fun doing it.
Thanks so kindly for the nice comment. I do like the results, but as we are always doing, want to do it better. Time will allow us to learn, and with that learning, we will get better. CaleyAnn
pbraun,, Welcome to quilting. You'll do just fine. I started with basically never sewing anything, except by hand in the military when I needed a uniform fixed
Just watch a lot of videos, ask questions, and then sit back and think about what that information can do for you. Pick what seems the easiest way for you, as there are usually dozens of ways of doing things.
But the most important part of any hobby is just to have lots of fun doing it.
Thanks so kindly for the nice comment. I do like the results, but as we are always doing, want to do it better. Time will allow us to learn, and with that learning, we will get better. CaleyAnn
