Back when I was having such trouble with my free motion quilting, I thought about stitching in the ditch around each snail and leaving the wide border unquilted. Some nice online friends convinced me that would be a bad idea, and I wasn't about to try free motion on the border and couldn't figure out what else to do with it, so it sat.
Last week I saw a segment on a quilting show about channel quilting and decided to follow the diagonal lines of the blocks, but didn't give any thought to when I might actually do it. I got the quilt pin basted earlier this week, using the boards I talked my husband into buying me.
And last night, I found myself quilting the top. I don't remember deciding to pull out the walking foot and get started. If I had any tentative plans to sit down and quilt something, it was to meander the dinosaur quilt.
The diagonal lines went fast, so fast that I remembered a recent discussion on Stashbusters about how baby quilts should be heavily quilted to help them stand up to frequent washing and I decided to put in another set of lines down the middles of the blocks so that they'd be two inches apart instead of four. And my movie still wasn't over, so I meandered the border.
I am so happy with the way this quilt has come out. It's another splurge project -- Connecting Threads had a great sale and I think I spent a whole twenty bucks on the fabric for the top.
Today I'm meandering dinosaurs.
5 comments:
Wow this really turned out so pretty. Did you get the pattern from Connecting Threads too? I just bought a kit from them, and can't wait to get started. I really like how your snail pattern is centered.
I like your quilt. It looks like you found the perfect way to quilt it.
Love your quilt! I wouldn't have thought to use the Snails as an inner border for another block - such a good idea.
You mentioned using boards to baste. Is that like on Sharon Schamber's video? I'm interested in trying her method but really would rather pin-baste than thread-baste.
Sarah in California
I'm glad you put in that tidbit about baby quilts...I never thought about it...but I imagine it would help them wear better if they were super dense quilted. I will start doing more of that. I am all for something to be durable and washable!
Beautiful quilt and perfect quilting plan. I'm quilting my blue star quilt the same way - diagonally using the blocks so I don't have to mark it - now I'm afraid it's not enough and am doing wavy lines up and down too.
What I can't do that you do is the free motion border quilting - someday I'll take the time to learn!
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