Tuesday 17 November 2009

Quilting frustration!

  Hi there, it's been a very long time since I've posted on my blog. There's no particular reason other than I've not had much new sewing wise to show. I've still been blog reading and I hope there is someone out there who hasn't forgoten me and may pop by to say "hi".

I've been working on a wonky log cabin quilt from a tutorial by John from Quiltdad who was the guest tutor (if that's the correct term) on the Old Red Barn Co. Quilt Along on fickr.
I used fabrics that I already had and wanted to use up. I recently did a direct fabric swap for some Park Slope strips with Viv from Highway cottage
and they went really well with the fabrics I was using so I added those too.
Here's some photos of the completed quilt top. I'm piecing the back too in a random make it up as you go along, let's use up some of the scraps style.







This is where I've spent some of my time this morning getting very annoyed and frustrated (you should see how hard I hit the key board when I wrote that).



I've been quilting a large double bed size quilt top, which I started making nearly two years ago, and my frustration is not the fault of my lovely new Bernina but down to the fact that the quilt is just too big to manouvre when free machine quilting. I'm not happy with how the quilting is looking but I'm just going to have to live with it.

Bye for now, Maria.




16 comments:

Chrissy said...

The quilt top is lovely. Yummy fabrics too.

Rachel said...

Hi! Welcome back! That quilt top looks fabulous, I always love the colours you choose.
Rachel x

Brioni Greenberg said...

Welome back - we've missed you!

The quilt top looks amazing!!! May of my favourite fabrics in there and it will absolutely be worth the effort to quilt it!!

Abby and Stephanie said...

I've been thinking about you Maria. Fantastic fabrics in your log cabins. I completely understand your frustration. There is a reason I send out my large quilt to be quilted. Once I had one all pin basted and started machine quilting it. Anger, swearing, sweating...I unpicked the stitches, unbasted it and sent it off to be quilted. Best of luck to you.

wonderwoman said...

lovely to have you back and your quilt top is gorgeous!

xx

Gill said...

welcome back - we've missed you
love the colours in your quilt top.i'm hoping your back to regular(ish) posting!!
gill

Heather said...

Beautiful quilts!

I was in the middle of quilting a huge quilt too and felt the same way! I bought some “quilting gloves” they have some grippy stuff on the palms of them, and I can’t even tell you how much easier it made it, it was like a 180 difference, do you use gloves?? Maybe that’ll help out if you don’t… here is what I have: http://www.connectingthreads.com/tools/fons-and-porter-machine-quilting-gloves_TDFonsGloves.html

Good luck! :D

Anonymous said...

Welcome back Maria, we've missed your blogging.

The quilt is looking gorgeous!!!!!

I share your frustration about the quilting. I have a huge one here that I'm sending away to be quilted, and likely the Bear Paw I'm working on too. You just can't quilt a big quilt nicely on a machine that only has 6 inches of arm. Oh for a 820 with 15 inches, or even a Juki with 8-9 inches. I can't justify the cost of a new machine though :-(

Indigo Blue said...

Hello,
Looks good to me and I admire you for making a double quilt in the first place. I made one over two years ago and I am still recovering!!

Sarah said...

At least you are tackling it! I so love the fabrics in the log blocks! Cheerfull and fresh.

Gone to Earth said...

Missed you being around. Love those blocks and fantastic colour and pattern mixing going on in there. Good luck with getting it quilted in a way that makes you happy... I'm sure you'll love it anyway once it's done and the frustration dies away.. :)

Marie said...

Have been missing you bunches, so glad your okay. Your quilting is always beautiful !! Hope you have a beautiful holiday season and keep in touch. Hugs, Marie

Anonymous said...

Love the colours you chose for the quilt.

Sympathies with the big quilt.

Attic24 said...

Maria I am SOOOOooooo excited to see your quilt as many of your fabrics I can recognise as the ones I just bought myself.....and they look fabulous together!
Lovely to visit with you
Lucexxxxxxxxxxxx
ps do let me know how you go with the decopatch, I'm going to do my letters tomorrow, can't wait!!!

Indigo Blue said...

Absolutely gorgeous colours on this quilt. I could sit and look at it for hours........

Kate said...

Understand your frustration. Probably a bit late, but I find the best way to handle a large quilt is to fold it in and work across it in sections (a bit like in this post http://kates-in-stitches.blogspot.com/2008/12/restless.html). Doing that Ive managed to free-motion quilt at 85" quilt :-)