Binding on the Back

During the 31 Days of Walking Foot Quilting I promised I would take some pictures to show you what the binding will look like on the back of the quilt.

Binding with a Walking Foot–Part 2

(Day 31 of a 31 Day Series)

Well 30 straight days of blogging out of 31 isn’t bad. Let’s finish up out bindings!

… continued from Part 1

OK so once you have made it through step 10, our next step is to join the binding.

11) We are dealing with the 10-12” gap we left in the binding. Pull the binding taught so that the binding meets in the middle of your “gap.” You’ll want it to be pretty taught if it’s loose you’ll end up with puckers in your binding. Once your binding meets in the middle fold back the tails onto the binding leaving a small gap (about 1/16”.) Finger press hard down the width of the binding. You’ll need to be able to see those creases in the next step. The reason for that little 1/16” gap is that it will account for the stretchiness of the fabric. Just trust me, it’ll turn out perfect in the end.

Binding with a Walking Foot–Part 1

(Day 30 of a 31 Day Series)
One of my favorite things to do with my walking foot is to apply the binding to my quilts completely by machine. By now you should know how much I dislike hand sewing. It just takes me forever, and there is just so much binding on a large quilt. I once hand sewed the binding on a queen size double wedding ring quilt and it took me 3 months to finish! I’m not going there again! (Unless it’s for a major quilt show.)

Quilt As You Go

(Day 29 of a 31 Day Series)

STOP!! Don’t run in the other direction. You’ll want to read this post, trust me.

I’ve given you lots of ideas for quilting designs that can be quilted with your walking foot during this “31 days” series. As I mentioned before, using a walking foot does not eliminate the hassle of wrestling your quilt top into that itty bitty space to the right of your machine’s needle. Some of you may have heard of a “quilt as you go” (QAYG) method and for some it will be a novel idea. Basically the method involves quilting up your quilt blocks one at a time (or smallish sections of your quilt) and then joining the quilted sections together to form the quilt. Most quilt blocks are in the 12”-16” range so this is very manageable in even the tiniest sewing machines.

Until a few weeks ago I was really only aware of two ways to do this. Both involve leaving a narrow un-quilted area around your blocks, then joining the blocks together, and a generous amount of hand sewing on the back of the quilt. I always found the method confusing and, since I really dislike hand sewing, cumbersome. Check out this really great tutorial that explains both method’s very well at The Quilter’s Cache.  (Make sure you read all 3 pages.)

To be honest I have NEVER done QAYG. The hand sewing always deterred me. My world changed dramatically when Maureen posted a fantabulous tutorial of her version of QAYG. Seriously you HAVE to go check it out. It is revolutionary – well ok it really is simple and my jaw dropped and I couldn’t help but think “duh!” Did I mention there is NO HAND SEWING!! *insert hallelujah chorus*

Ok enough already – get over to Maureen’s lovely blog, bookmark her, follow her, but don’t stalk her! Tell her you love her, she’s a genius, and tell her we are so lucky she joined the quilting world (she’s only been quilting a short while) – oh and tell her I sent ya!

Will you look at that gorgeous straight line quilting!

I really want to know if you have done QAYG, what you liked and didn’t like about it. What do you think about Maureen’s method?
~ Norma

Sunday Inspiration

(Day 28 of a 31 Day Series)

1. Halloween pillow, 2. Back view of clamshell quilting pattern, 3. Scrappy Blue Charm Quilt Closeup, 4. Sydney's Quilt, 5. FMQAL Wavy Crosshatch, 6. "Up Cycled" Denim Quilt

Borders

(Day 27 of a 31 Day Series)

Today I decided to share some ideas for quilting borders. Not every quit is going to look great with an all over design. Some of the designs I showed you before can be used as border designs, although you may have to drop some elements.

Quilted Fabric

(Day 26 of a 31 Day Series)

Geometric Meander

(Day 25 of a 31 Day Series)

In FMQ when you do a stipple or meander you are basically wandering in a random squiggly fashion. You can also do a random wandering with your walking foot like this:

Giant Clamshell

(Day 24 of a 31 Day Series)

 

Ribbons

(Day 23 of a 31 Day Series)

One of the easiest free motion quilting designs is “loops.”  We can modify this design for walking foot quilting quite easily.

Topography

(Day 22 of a 31 Day Series)

This design takes its cue from a topographical map. There is no marking required because the lines don’t have to be equally spaced. In fact the design looks better when the lines are a bit more random.

To make this design you start with one free form stitching line (the inner most pink line.) Then you would echo the design inward and outward. You don’t need to echo the stitching line perfectly or equally spaced. In fact it looks great if every once in a while you throw in a slightly different element (see the outer pink line.)

Only 1.5 weeks left in the series
Norma

Stairs

(Day 20 of a 31 Day Series)
I have one more “zig zag” design to share with you this week.

If you slightly rotate the “zig zag” design you’ll end up with some stairs.
In the example I followed the edges of the blocks to form the stairs. I only echoed the design once in the middle of the other blocks. I think it would look fabulous with 2-3 echoes in between the main blocks. This design does require a lot of pivoting so I might rethink that idea if this were a queen size quilt.
~ Norma

Double Argyle

(Day 19 of a 31 Day Series)

Ok, here’s one more argyle or diamond variation. You get a whole different look if you just double the lines.

I think I like this one better than the single argyle or diamonds design. How about you?

Norma

Argyle: Mix It Up

(Day 18 of a 31 Day Series)

Don’t be afraid to play around with any of the designs I have shared with you. Here I have taken yesterday’s design, Argyle, and changed the look simply by playing around with it.

Basically I offset the next row to create illusion of an echoed zig zag between the rows.

~ Norma

Argyle

(Day 17 of a 31 Day Series)

I know these are basically diamonds but when they are on point it looks like an argyle sweater. You could easily flip this design over on it’s side for a different look to the diamonds.

Zig Zag

(Day 16 of a 31 Day Series)
  Fill the whole quilt, quilt it in rows, do it in groups of two a la Charlie brown’s sweater, or in groups of three, wide and tall, or short and narrow. Whatever floats your boat. This simple graphic quilting pattern adds a lot of WOW to a quilt. Obviously, you can do this design on a Zig Zag quilt by echoing the block lines.
I like it! It adds movement to a quilt, up and down. Or turn it on it’s side for left to right movement. This one requires a lot of pivoting. A sewing machine with a knee lift sure comes in handy right about now :) You only need to mark your first zig zag, then use your guide bar or edge of your foot to echo your previous line. Marking is a breeze if you use existing points on your quilt (like the corners of blocks) to mark your first row.
Had you thought to use this design on a non-zig zag quilt?
~ Norma

Broken Glass

(Day 15 of a 31 Day Series)

Are you ready for another week of quilting ideas? We’re about half way through our 31 days series. I hope you have found at least one new design to try out. This week we’re going to focus on designs with sharp angles. This means there is going to be a bit of pivoting with our needle down to achieve these designs. Just be gentle when moving your quilt sandwich around to avoid any unnecessary pressure on your needle.
Think of this design as a geometric meander. There is no need to mark your quilt just go for it! There are no rules so if you get stuck in a corner feel free to cross a previous line or throw in a square or odd polygon to get out. I would quilt this from one side to the other but not in a straight row. Have fun with your first pass (black.) Then come back and start filling in spaces on your next pass (pink.) Continue until you fill the area you wish to quilt.
~ Norma
PS to get a feel for any of the designs I suggest you grab a piece of paper and a pen, not a pencil. Practice drawing the design (fill up the paper) until you are comfortable with the flow of the design. I say use a pen because you can’t erase “thread” once you start quilting on your machine. You can unpick, but who wants to do that?! I keep my kids old school papers for doodling quilt designs on the back before throwing them out.

Sunday Inspiration

(Day 14 of a 31 Day Series)

1. Quilted waves, 2. Stars in the Pines, 3. Little quilt with tropical fish, 4. HST quilt, orange peel quilting, 5. Love U Charm Quilt and Orange Peel Quilting Tutorial, 6. Citrus Wedge, 7. Modern Peel, 8. Broken Diamonds Back Detail, 9. Curved crosshatching

 

1. Perfect example of quilting waves. Such an organic feel to this quilt.

2. Some curved crosshatching tucked into setting triangles.

3. Here is an example of water. To do this on a walking foot do it on a much bigger scale.

4. A great example of the orange peel or pumpkin seed design. The difference between this design and the “continuous curve” design is that the pumpkin seed is on the diagonal.

5. Here is a quilt done with continuous curve.

6. Circles on circles. What a great design! Notice how the circles are not equally spaced.

7. Ok this quilt is a prefect example of “targets” that cross each other.

8. Another example of circles. This one has the circles spaced evenly.

9. Another example of curved crosshatch. This time it’s tucked into the center of a block.

Have you tried any of these designs? Which ones are you dying to try?
~ Norma

Water

(Day 13 of a 31 Day Series)
If you stuck with me through yesterday’s post you deserve an easy design for today! How about some nice LOOONG gentle curves to quilt up a top lickety split?
Super easy, no marking required (unless you really want to) and adds a nice organic feel to the quilt. If you echo your lines (like the one that goes right across the middle of the quilt) the design kind of looks like wandering paths. Try it out on your next “outdoorsy” type of quilt. To keep it feeling more organic don’t echo it exactly the same.
See you tomorrow for some lovely quilts!
~ Norma

Orange Peel or Pumpkin Seed

(Day 12 of a 31 Day Series)
This is one of my favorite designs for using my walking foot. Yes you will have to mark your quilting lines but the results are worth it!
Just like the continuous curve design I showed you earlier in the week, it looks complicated. However when we think outside of the box and quilt this in rows it’s not that difficult.Lets break it down:
We basically have 4 different curves that are all similar. I have color coded each of the lines so that you can find them easier. Fig. E shows you how they all work together. Just stare at the picture for a while and it will all start to make sense.
Lines A & B are opposites as are C & D. Notice that A & C are basically the same they just have a different starting point. The same goes for B & D. I don’t want to get too wordy with a description and confuse you more.
1) Look at “Fig. E” Let’s say I was doing this on a quilt. I would start at the top left corner of my quilt with the first block. I would stitch out a line “A” (the black line.) It starts on my first bock in the lower left hand side and snakes it’s way across two rows of blocks.
2) Next I would stich a line “D” (the purple line.) This would start at the very same point as line “A.” It starts on my first bock in the lower left hand side and snakes it’s off the quilt and comes back down 3 blocks to the right and then goes of the quilt once more.
3) Next I would stitch a partial line “C” ( the dark blue line.). This one comes in on the second block of the quilt at the top left corner of the block, then it makes it’s way of the quilt on the 3rd block. It comes back down and out on the 6th and 7th block of the first row.
4) Next we’ll stitch a line “B” (the orange line.) to completely finish off the first row. This line of stitching will start on the first block of the 2nd row on the tope left corner of the block. It will then snake it’s way across the first and second rows of blocks.
5) From here on out you are just repeating the lines until you finish the quilt.

Trust me, it’s not hard! Just stare at the picture and you will get it :) Are you still with me or did I just scare you off?
~ Norma

Not to throw you a curve ball, but once you get the hang of it you can always travel up the side of your quilt (on the extra batting and backing) once you finish a row and come back in the other direction with a different stitching line.
Oh one more thing. I use this method for stitching down my cathedral windows blocks too!