Magical Inspiration second try
 

Hoping it works this time: In October of 2011, I purchased a new Brother sewing machine that was lightweight enough to take to class (I was/am a newbie). It had many decorative stitches which I had always wanted on a sewing machine. My sister, an experienced quilter, said "you need to practice working with those stitches. There is a pattern on the Bernina website that features a quilt made with a multitude of stitches and it doesn't look too hard." Hmph! Easy enough for her to say!!! I did like the pattern, but was very hesitant in tackling it.

Then I saw a YouTube ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOWSp0mTTqE ) by Missouri Star Quilt that featured the 'Cozy Quilt Designs of Strip Tubing'. After watching it a couple of times, I had an "Inspiration" to make it.....but......before I would sew the strips into a tube, I would make rows of decorative stitches on each of the strips. After doing that, I sewed it into a tube and cut it with the Strip Tube Ruler. Oh my....it was 'magical'.

At this month's quilt guild meeting, I showed my "Magical Inspiration"

This Strip Tube Quilt pattern has many layout possibilities. Here are just a couple I experimented with:

Very pretty! I like the way you put it together and the other ways would work well, too! I bet you'll be making more of these!

Thank you! I have already started another one. When I showed this one at our Quilt Guild, I was invited to do a demonstration at our next meeting as to how I did it. So.....I have each of the steps assimilated. Of course, after the demonstration, I will be completing the steps and making another one of these.

very nice :)

Wow this is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excellent use of fancy stitches!

That is just cool as can be! What a great idea. :)

Beautiful quilt.

Isn't it fun to experiment and look at the different ways you can create something. It makes you proud. You did a great job.

What a clever use of all of those fancy unused stitches. Kudos to you and your sister for her inspiration for you.! Beautiful, just beautiful!

nicely done

I love it!

Beautiful work!!

Wonderful inspiration! Great thinking outside the box and what a beautiful quilt you created!

Your quilt looks great, and I particularly like the decorative stitching you did!

What a great idea--I just brought my sister's wonderful Elna Sewing machine home with me and I think you have just given me the idea for my first quilt using her machine! I love the idea of doing the decorative stitching on the long strips. Thanks so much for sharing.

Beautiful quilt and blocks.

Your quilt is beautiful. What a great idea for all those decorative stitches! I'm going to try one of these. Thanks for sharing.

I love all the decorative stitches. All your creative efforts will really make a beautiful quilt. Very nice work.

I bought a cheap (just around $200) refurbished Brother XR9000 and it has lots of decorative stitches. I bought it 3 or so years ago to learn how to quilt. I love this little Brother and sew just about 4 - 5 days a week with it. And it has never given me a problem. Although, I do wish for a longer throat space. I've made Missouri Star's tube quilt and also their Summer in the Park tube quilt, but never thought to do decorative stitches. I'm definitely going to try this. One question...did you use any backing (stabilizer) on the fabric like you would for embroidery? When you get through showing your guild you should post a tutorial on the board. Thanks so much for sharing your idea. By the way, I love your quilt.

What a creative and inspirational quilt you have made! This is not something I would have thought of but I sure do love the results. Wish I could be at the meeting where you will be demonstrating this block.

Very cool idea.

WOW! That is just too pretty! What a great idea, I love it!

So very cool and hope you had fun with it.

What a great idea!

Thank you Debbie! My Brother is very small also but I love it. Yes, I did use Stitch and Tear on some of the strips but since I had them sewn together, they were kind of cranky trying to snug into the throat. So, on the rest (most) of it I used Cut Away Embroidery Stabilizer (which tears also) from http://www.worldweidner.com/cutawaye...ht-8x20yd.aspx

If I can get the written text part of the tutorial understandable and also utilize the Strip Tube YouTube tutorials, I just might post it sometime next month. Stay tuned. Oh....and by the way, I am going to do Summer in the park also, very soon.

KLO....since I have had requests for a tutorial already, I am going to try to work up a written tutorial to go with the YouTube videos. Probably won't be until late next month though.

Thanks for doing that. I will definitely be watching for your tutorial. I am sure it is probably a fairly straight forward process but you will have worked all the kinks out for the rest of us. We will all owe you a big Thank You for sure. And thanks for sharing!

Outstanding work, and thanks for showing how you did it!

Using your decorative stitches for this pattern was a GREAT idea! What kind/weight thread did you use? You must have a huge amount of time invested in all of that stitching but it really paid off.

Your work demonstrates the very best opportunity to use the all the decorative stitches. But what a lot of work entailed in decorating all the strips.! Whew ! What a great idea. Good for you. Glad you are receiving recognition for this completed quilt.

Great way to use your embroidery stitches! Beautiful quilt!

What a neat idea! I made up a book with all of the bernina built in stitches to refer to. It took a very long time just to do that. I can't imagine making a whole quilt like this. You sure are a persistent person to have made this quilt.

Oh by the way ... Great job!

The thread I used was Janome embroidery thread (rayon). It was my Mother's and my sister and I inherited it when she passed away. I tried using other threads; cotton and polyester.....but whether it was the machine or just this beginner, I could not get a satisfactory result with thread other than the Janome embroidery. I am making a "step-by-step" one right now to demonstrate to the Quilt Guild and I am using Madera that I bought from http://www.worldweidner.com/madeirar...canspirit.aspx

Yes....it did take me a long time doing all of that stitching, but as my sister prodded me on she kept saying "Well, you are creating your own fabric."

Don't you just love the Missouri Star Quilt Co. Tutorials. They are so informative and easy to do. You did a great job!! Yours is beautiful.

thank you for sharing! your quilt is stunning i love the light fabric in yours!

Fantastic job!

I have posted the tutorial here: http://www.quiltingboard.com/tutoria...e-t226372.html