Monday 21 October 2013

Quilting Quandary

Remember this?  I'm sure you don't, but this was a late evening basting job that resulted in all over puckers. 
 

Note to self: do not baste after 11:00 pm.

This is the wedding quilt I have been working on forever for several months.  I thought the stumbling block to get this quilt finished was the basting fiasco.  Now that this quilt has been re-basted, turns out I have a bigger stumbling block: I have no idea how to quilt the thing!


The colours are much more accurate in the picture below.  Oh, and you are seeing are wrinkles... I swear there are no more puckers!


My machine quilting skills are improving, but there are few designs that I can tackle confidently: stippling, wavy lines, loops, you know, the easy ones...  This quilt deserves a bit more, but it has to be feasible.

Any advice ?  All over pattern?  Quilt each "box" individually? Random pattern in random sections?

Beige thread?  Green?  Aqua?  Variegated?  Quilt the lights and dark separately?

Thankfully, I have one more month - more time than I initially thought - before my "messenger" takes the quilt to the recipients.  I don't want to rush in the end, though, so I hope inspiration strikes me soon!

***

On another note, another birthday party invitation arrived today, so I am off to make another personalized cushion.  Hmmm... I wonder if my kids' friends' moms read my last post about birthday cushions...


5 comments:

  1. What I can say is that I am no quilting expert, but it may be cool to echo the diamond pattern by doing some quilting in the "Ivory/neutral" parts of the quilt so that the colors pop out. Does that make sense?

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  2. I like the idea of doing different patterns in the ivory/neutral and blue/green sections. The diamond pattern really pops from a distance and it would really highlight that.

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  3. Looks gorgeous, Dominique! Gah, I hate puckers when basting, good thing you caught them before quilting. :o)

    I have an idea for a simple quilting pattern you could try. It looks more complicated than it is, but will look good from both sides of your quilt and best yet, no need to mark your quilt top to do it! Here's the link to a quilt I did the design I'm thinking you could use:
    http://sewmesomethinggood.blogspot.ca/2013/05/fridays-finish-pop-star-quilt.html
    If you use each square as your guide, you simply FMQ a curve from corner to corner. It works out that you will be stitching a wavy line from one end of each row of blocks to the other. Then you repeat for the other direction once you get the first set done. Clear as mud??? lol... I can give detailed directions if needed. Let me know.

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  4. Sorry your basting did not go well the first time. Yes, late nights are not as productive as we think. This we see much more clearly in the light of day. Can't help you with the quilting. Simple quilting is my specialty! I like Katherine's idea though!

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  5. Hey Dominique! I did a quilt with a similar pattern this summer and found it worked really well to echo the on point squares... which I guess is pretty much what Ade said! I think I would use a neutral thread... less stress about what the back looks like where you've had puckering issues. There's my 2 cents.

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