Gemmahelena

Hey all!

I'm new here, but have been lurking for a while to learn, I learned a lot from y'all, thank you! (:
I am making my very first quilt, and because I am a bit of an all or nothing person, I immediately went for a king sized one (: It's far from perfect, but I'm quite happy with it. All the blocks are different and improvised.

The whole basting/ sandwich process was really intense, I used cheaper backing material because I ran out of money, and it kept on wrinkling. I did it over three times and this is as good as it's going to be.

I finally could start quilting, yay! Because this is my first quilt and it's gigantic and I want to machine quilt it with a regular sewing machine, I thought straight line quilting was the way to go. I thought of only doing vertical lines, but I'm now starting to doubt. Also, the second line I tried to do with the help of a quilting guide, but it's not straight at all, so might have to mark the lines on the quilt.

I was wondering what simple quilting design/lines you would go for with this quilt? I think something echoing the design and not too busy would be good, but not really sure what exactly. The batting is a cotton blend and can be quilted up to 4 inch apart.

I couldn't get my whole quilt on the picture at the moment, but hope this gives you an idea. It's 5 rows of 7 blocks with sashing in between.

Another question I have: the quilt is spray basted and pinned. It was (almost) wrinkle free at some point, but by trying to quilt it and handling it, new wrinkles appear. Should I iron it in between?

Thanks so much in advance for thinking along!


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Eva Knight

There are so many how too's on you-tube. Check out some of them. Also I always starch my top and backing. To me, it makes the quilting better. This wk end you can watch all classes at craftsy for free. Maybe check them out also.

thimblebug6000

for me, one of the hardest things to do, is quilt a straight line. However, I think as you continue on, your lines will "look". straighter, the more you get.
What a huge quilt for your first project, but it is looking great!

Tartan

If your quilt sandwich still has one movement, stick with the vertical lines and just add more of them. If you add horizontal lines you will sew in puckers in the back where the lines cross. As for keeping your lines straight, painter's of masking tape can be stuck on the top and you can sew along the edge of it. I use it more then once and just add a few straight pins to it when it stops sticking.

P.S. Welcome from Ontario, Canada and cute quilt!

Gemmahelena

Thank you all so much! After looking at a lot of quilts online, I decided I want to quilt a corner stone grid.. But now I'm worried that indeed I will get puckers when adding horizontal lines.. The starching tip is an amazing one, I wished I thought of that earlier. I starched the top of my quilt and ironed it, it looks better now, but I'm still afraid it's not tight enough? But I'm not sure if I try to baste it again I will do any better, me and my friend did three attempts to get it as tight as possible but it's really hard with such a big quilt (and for a beginner (: ) What would you do?

Masking tape is a good idea, I think it will give a better result than using the guide, am going to try that! And thanks for not hating my imperfect first quilt! <3

cashs_mom

I agree. Straight lines are very hard for me. I made a king size quilt last year, but I used Marti Mitchell's Quilting in Sections book and did it in 3 sections which made each piece easier to handle. Then put the borders on last. It came out really good.

I starched and did swirls on it. I only got one tiny pucker which I chose to leave since it was so small. I noticed the last time I washed it that I couldn't even find it.

Good luck! Quilt on!

Krisb

When I spray baste, I always press the top and backing after basting. Learned this is an Ann Peterson class on Craftsy. But that is water undr the bridge at this point. When I am in Florida, basted tops always wrinkle. Think it is because of the humidity.