Saturday 13 April 2013

What's your stipple?

Today I quilted the Under the Sea quilt.  I had intended to be a bit more adventurous with the quilting and do wavy lines across the top.  However, it soon became apparent it was difficult to get them even and the piece I was practising on soon became a mess of lots of wavy lines in all directions.

I don't know what happened, but I decided at the last minute (foot poised over the pedal, presser foot down, actual quilt in place) to stipple it.  I have not done this on a proper quilt top before so I really don't know what possessed me to make a last second decision like that!  I have done it on little pieces so it wasn't a totally new experience but I've never done it with any success.

However, by some sort of miracle it went well (i.e not a ruinous disaster) and I'm glad I gambled. The stitches are of slightly varying length but the recipients won't pay any attention to that will they? 






Then disaster struck! I had read free motion quilting was thread hungry (see this excellent tutorial which I found immensely helpful) but I wasn't prepared to run out of my newly purchased spool! Obviously I bought it at a shop miles away so will have to go on a trek tomorrow if I'm going to get the binding on this weekend.

2 comments:

  1. wow well done tackling free motion quilting Jenny! I am really impressed with stippling. Yes you always need more thread than you think. I stock pile 400m reels but always need more!

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  2. Thank you Jo! Yes, insufficient thread was definitely a rookie error and I'm going to buy a LOT more to make sure I can finish it. I just hope I am feeling as gung-ho when I try again!

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