Quilting Safus - SOLVED!

Yesterday I wrote about the frustration we all feel when sewing and/or quilting machines take on a cantankerous attitude and refuse to do what we simply want them to do - 

Stitch with perfect tension and no issues.  

Yes, we make those plans, plan our day for everything going swimmingly, and the universe laughs.

I'm happy to report that all of the things I did seem to have solved my issues.

Whether it was the cleaning/oiling (Maybe there was a spot of schmutz I missed the first time?) changing the needle (more than once because what if there was a burr?) and ditching the top AND the bobbin thread (because maybe the top thread was bad, and the bobbin was wound weird?) I was able to see the quilting through.

It's so pretty!

String quilts usually end up with a lot of bias at the edges of the blocks and the outside edge of the quilt top.  It's just the nature of the beast.

I chose a swirly curly pantograph for this one because the spirals do their job of sucking up any fullness that happens with biasy stuff.

Also - designs like this do not have quilting lines crossing other quilting lines which can sometimes push a pleat over where previous stitching is.

I didn't quite have enough of the fabric I was thinking of for binding - so second choice was this one.

It's a Christmas print?  But by the time the binding is done, I dare anyone to suss that out.

Second quilt trimming in two days!

For the longest time I haven't felt like I was making any progress on anything, and then between Sunday and Tuesday I trimmed two quilts, got binding on two quilts. I'm good with that.

Why trim first?  Because quilts are RARELY straight at the edges, nor are the corners actually square.

If I want nice miters on my binding corners, I need to start with a good square corner first.

For quilts where the piecing goes all the way to the edge, I use a ruler like this one to make sure I am not trimming off my 1/4'' seam allowance beyond the points of the piecing.

Quilt wrangling.

This is a heavy beast!

It's amazing to me how much heavier machine quilted quilts are as compared to my hand quilted ones.

This one also has more seams - there lis likely as much fabric in the seam allowances as is showing on the front.  String quilts are like that.

There is also the difference in batting.  I used an 80/20 blend for this one, and the Quilter's Dream Request that I use for hand quilting is much lighter.

Now in the binding queue!

I've got one side and the hanging sleeve yet to stitch down on Abbeygate, and then I can start in on binding this one.

Be watching for Dogwood Daze to release some time in April.

Gosh, I just love this!

Where is spring?

The Lincoln Quilt Guild ladies were all tucked in warm and cozy as of last evening.

As soon as Hubster Dave clears the drive he'll take me over to see how they are doing.

We've got about 1'' on the ground with up to 3'' expected which is better than the 6" - 7" they were predicting.

Vehicles are already parked down at the bottom of the drive in preparation for the bad driveway conditions.

It looks so pretty.  But it's cold at 26 f degrees. Luckily there is no wind, and no freezing rain on top of it like last week.

I truly hope this is winter's last hurrah and we can move on to spring.  Enough is enough!

Even Ivy things so!

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Let the Sow Day Sew Day Begin.  

Again.

How long is February?