Monday 25 January 2016

The Home Stretch

     I'm on the home stretch, I think.  I've spent the weekend putting in a lot of effort on quilting the pick up sticks quilt.
I would have thought it would be done by now but man it takes a long time to quilt one of these puppies on a home sewing machine.  



     Last weekend I quilted in the ditch around the blocks.  This weekend I focussed on free motion quilting  wide wiggles in the sashing and that went quicker than I thought it would.  I then decided that leaving the blocks with no quilting in them wasn't good enough so I am straight line quilting an echo around the pick up sticks. 


      I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out.  I'm learning a lot about my sewing machine as I go along and I'm getting better at the free motion quilting. How many hours of this do we have to do to get really good at this?

        While I was working on this I was thinking of Helen in Ireland who is tackling her own quilting back log and Laney and Elizabeth in the U.S. who are also working on their free motion quilting. All in together girls!

     I'm hoping to get this finished by the end of the month but I've got a really busy weekend coming up so I'm crossing my fingers.  I'm linking up with Beth of Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday. 

19 comments:

Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl said...

Your progress photos look very nice, Lisa. You were really consistent on the size of your wide wiggles. :)

Sandra Walker said...

It takes a looong time, but it happens. Looks like it's happening for you!! Love that soft blue; this is coming along nicely. I love thinking of all the bloggers in QBL sewing together across the globe. :-) Is Helen working on Mrs. Hot Hot Hot? I'll have to pop across the pond and take a look!

SarahZ said...

Oh these colors all look so soothing to me! I hope to tackle FMQ this year...can't believe I haven't yet.... This will be a wonderful finish, can't wait to see it!

the zen quilter said...

Is it a queen-sized? I just quilted a queen-sized on my Bernina 750 and let me tell you - it was huge! So I get it, it's not an easy thing to do. Just let yourself stop and take your time, otherwise it's NO FUN! And it should totally be about fun, don't you think?

Beth @ Cooking Up Quilts said...

It takes me hours to become comfortable with a quilting design, and every time I find a new design to try it takes even more hours. :) But it's so much fun, and that makes it all worthwhile, right? Your stitching looks great. I find SITD to be so tedious, but it really is necessary to stabilize the quilt. Your wiggles look good. Have fun finishing your quilt! Thanks for sharing on MCM; I'm looking forward to seeing your progress!

Cheryl said...

Your free motion quilting looks great!

Diana @ Red Delicious Life said...

Wide wiggles aren't always easy to get consistent and yours look great. With each quilt, I get a little better at one aspect of free motion quilting and it gives me the confidence to try something new. Keep at it, it looks great!

Liz said...

Thanks for sharing with me! I'm glad I'm not alone in the struggle. Your wiggles look fantastic, nice and even, and the stitch length looks good to me, too. I'm working on figure 8-ing a quilt right now, and it is taking me longer than I anticipated. I do like the effect though, and hopefully by the time I'm done I'll be pro at the figure 8 loop!

Paige said...

I am never comfortable with my FMQ! Your quilting is great, be very proud! You are making progress!

Tish Stemple said...

You are making great progress. You'll be done before you know it. I'm trying to get in the quilting mind set, but with big projects and a small machine one can drag their feet. Your progress is inspiring.

Kaja said...

I once did a quilt on a my ordinary little machine and it nearly killed me, so I'm impressed! Your wiggly border looks really good too.

Anja @ Anja Quilts said...

You're making great progress. It looks great. I'm not very good at wiggles. Good luck finishing up.

Gina said...

Well done on tackling the quilt. You'll soon be quilting bigger quilts and doing more quilting on them. The trick is not to second guess yourself. Just go for it. If it doesn't work there's always the seam ripper xx

Little Black Cat Quilting said...

Loving the quilting so far! Your wiggles in the sashing are really consistent, awesome job. And I like the echo quilting in the blocks, I agree it's a good choice!

helenjean@midgetgemquilts said...

You are really going for it! I'm still quilting, still straight line quilting and thinking it would really be better for my machine if I changed the foot and dropped the feeddogs.

helenjean@midgetgemquilts said...

man handling my maple leaf quilt, Mrs Hot Hot Hot is waiting in the wings

June D said...

Wonderful decisions on the quilting!

Puppilalla said...

I am impressed and encouraged that it is indeed possible to free motion quilt on a small domestic machine. Keep going. It will be very lovely.

Kate said...

Looks like you've made lots of progress. Good luck with your goal to finish it by the end of the month.