Wednesday 14 March 2012

WIP Wednesday - How to quilt a monster (and a giveaway!)

After a week or so of working on another (secret) project, I gave in and started quilting the giant Just Wing It quilt. It's really not that massive - just a lot more massive than my usual baby quilts. At around 60" x 85" I was a bit scared of trying to wrestle it through my machine to FMQ it.

I've been pleasantly surprised at how easy it's been - the middle part has required a fair bit of starting and stopping to manipulate the part I have rolled up within the throat of my machine, but otherwise its been smooth sailing. I'm doing a loose stipple (not sure if that's a mutually exclusive statement? Does stipple mean tight?) - around 1" between the quilting. This should hopefully make it a good texture for a bed quilt, and mean its snuggly and soft once its washed.

I normally start at one corner and quilt like Elizabeth's tutorial. This time I did it differently. I drew a (really dodgy) diagram showing how I did it. Note how bored I got of drawing wavy lines - they get progressively more sloppy. I did not do this with my real quilting ;o)
* I started at 1 (with the quilt rolled up from the bottom side in this picture) and quilted that quarter, moving from the centre to the side edge and back again, all the way down the quilt..
* I removed the quilt completely from my machine, and rolled the quilt from the right hand side in the photo - starting at 2, I quilted down from the middle to the bottom edge, then up, then down etc. until that quarter was fully quilted.
* Once that quarter was finished, I rolled the quilt from the top side in this picture, and started at 3, quilting across to the edge and back to the middle etc.
* Finally, I rolled the quilt from the left side and started at 4, quilting up and down until I had finished the final quarter.
I will definitely be using this technique for quilting larger quilts from now on. It involved minimal quilt wrangling (the weight of the quilt was on the table top as much as possible) and I didn't have too much of the quilt under my machine at any time.


I finished quilting it tonight - but the photos are of a part-quilted quilt taken during daylight hours (better ones tomorrow I promise!)


Oh, if you haven't already entered, I have a giveaway open until next Tuesday (sponsored by Sew Fresh Fabrics, so it's a goodie!!)

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced - as always, go check out the awesome stuff being made :o)

17 comments:

Diane said...

Love the colors of this quilt.

Kelly said...

LOvely quilt and quilting! I always try and stick to a plan and then seem to be all over the shop ;-)

Lucy | Charm About You said...

Thanks for that, I always wondered how people did this without getting stuck!! I've never tried to stipple but it looks great (even in the darkish picture)!

Dianne Neale said...

Lovely quilt. I try to do quarters like you, but it never seems to go to plan!

Danny Heyen said...

Awesome! This worked out great!

moira said...

great quilting. I'm not braved enough for FMQ yet - maybe soon.... gulp!

Katy Cameron said...

Oooh, looking good! I'd hear you should start in the centre and work out, but hadn't even thought how you'd do it with FMQ (what with only having done it once on a wee bit of quilt sandwich lol)

Sel said...

Ooh, good plan to quilt in quarters. I've been contemplating my first big FMQ and am slightly terrified, so this helps lots.

I love the Just Wing It quilt by the way - it looks fabulous with the white sashing!

Teresa F. said...

Awesome quilt. I love the colors. You did a wonderful job, your FMQ is great.

Marjorie's Busy Corner said...

beautiful quilt and quilting

Pennie said...

looks lovely, can't wait to see the finished article

Heather D. said...

This quilt is beautiful. Your stippling looks just great. I hope to be able to do that one day! Thanks also for the diagram, that really helps.

amy said...

lovely stippling! i haven't been brave enough yet to wrangle my full size quilt through a machine...

Alyce @ Blossom Heart Quilts said...

Ooh pretty! I'm working on my first "big" (throw size) quilt and am hesitant to quilt it. Partly because it's about 4-5 times bigger than anything I've quilted before and partly because I only have a little Elna and partly because I've never really FMQed before and this is a quilt that deserves more than straight lines... I think... It'll be a little while before I finish the top between kids and such, so we'll see. But anyway, this kind of design would work I think!

Kirsten said...

I haven't tried much FMQ but you make it look easy - your quilt looks so lovely!

needle and nest said...

Oh, this quilt is lovely! You did a great job with your FMQ. :)

Vicki {Quilting Lodge} said...

Beautiful quilt! I love the colors.

Vicki @ Quilting Lodge