Friday, July 20, 2018

Quilting

Now that all the excitement of last week has passed, this week has been much more laid-back. In fact,  I've spent most of this week at home.

On Tuesday I had to miss line dancing and Big Cypress Quilters because our golf cart had to go to the shop and we didn't have two vehicles to get us where we needed to go. Though we have routine golf cart service at our home (one of the reasons we bought our golf cart from the dealership we did) and had new battery and new headlights installed, there was a problem with the brakes that required cart servicing in Ocala. Turns out the brake problem was due to an incorrect installation, so that was a satisfying "no charge" fix.

So with extra at-home time on Tuesday I completed the Bernina Zen Chic QAL quilt top. On Wednesday I pin-basted it, and began free motion quilting that evening.

Piecing was a little slow because every intersection of 60-degree triangles needed to be carefully joined for accuracy. I followed Zen Chic's instructions to "skewer" the seams with a pin where the points met, and pin on either side of the points. This method worked well! I'm pleased with the precise joining of most of the seams.

 Only a few of them are a scosh off the mark.
 

The quilt top is about 83" wide by 82" long. I'm happy with the color I chose for the negative space. Though I would have preferred to use a Painter's Palette Solid, the color I needed was available only in Kaufman Kona. That color is Pond. A prompt for a name? "Triangles in the Pond"?

I pin-basted the quilt sandwich because batting is Quilter's Dream wool. Homemade basting spray wouldn't hold the layers together. Now I'm nearly out of safety pins because another large quilt (Spin Art) is pin-basted and ready for quilting.

It felt good to be quilting, as it's been quite a while since I've FMQed. Well yes, I quilted Austin's quilt (Owl Always Love You) but that was mostly walking foot quilted.

For the first time I'm using 40-weight Aurifl thread (green plastic spool) for top quilting. Previously I've most often used 50-weight. But since having this Janome serviced in late June, and telling the tech I was having a problem with thread breaks while FMQing, he said the thread was too thin. So I'm using 40, and liking it a lot! Now to get more colors. I'm happy with the price ($9.50) and speed of my last order from Pumpkinvine Corner in Atlanta. I'm sure I'll use that resource again.

For quilting designs I'm quilting whatever I want as I go - a combination of ruler work and free motion quilting.

Most of the custom quilting designs will be in the triangles, and wherever I decide to extend the triangles into the side negative spaces. For the rest of the outside negative space, I'll fill in with an all over design.

After line dancing Thursday morning, afternoon Ukulele Players Club, and quilting for a couple hours, Dan called me to this unique dinner. He made it up, mostly from leftovers, and calls it Chicken Italian Sausage Pepper Soup.

The scoop of rice in the center was the perfect compliment to the chunky broth of chicken, Italian sausage, yellow peppers, onions and seasonings - very flavorful. Soup was accompanied by this Lofthouse sauvignon blanc, a new-to-me white wine. I can always count on the nice quality of a New Zealand Marlborough.

Good food. Good quilting. Life is still good. Linda

14 comments:

  1. Yes, life is still good indeed! I suspect you're enjoying that quality quilting time, and good to see the 40 wt. Aurifil is working well in your Janome. And, thank you so much for the link for the Aurifil thread!! My (previous) favorite source is now up to $13 per large spool, so this is a serious discount, and every penny counts in a retiree's quilting budget!

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  2. I really like the quilt. It will look great when it's all done.

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  3. That soup looks great--good for him for being inventive.

    And that quilt is terrific! So fun to see all those triangles floating in a pond (heh heh). Glad you are at the FMQ--it's fun to come back to!

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  4. Wow so much to comment on Linda. Love your latest quilt in the pond. :-) Your machine quilting is excellent and I've yet to venture into the ruler work, even though I bought them some time ago. I am anal about 'matching points'and have used the method you described for some time now. Works very well most of the time. I think I've mentioned before how lucky you are to have your
    own 'in-house chef' :-)

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  5. Yep, the 'pond' quilt is really nice!!! Points are wow! Isn't it fun when they come out so perfect! I have heard that 'tip' before and it does work well.

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  6. Love the quilt you are working on - so admire your quilting! ;-)

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  7. Your quilt is coming along so nicely and I lovely that you're FMQing whatever design you feel like. Enjoy the rest of your weekend :)

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  8. Pond is so pretty with the magenta, perfect choice! I commented on IG, you wasted no time starting to quilt it! I would have been stewing for days deciding what to quilt. I too do the skewer method, I just didn't know the correct term for it! :)

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  9. The points look great on this- yes, quite the challenge. And oh, that soup- looks delish.

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  10. Your quilting as always is wonderful but that bowl of soup looks so yummy. Sounds yummy too.

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  11. Gosh I love this quilt! The colors are just perfect. I was taught this "skewer" method in a Triangle QAL a few years ago when I was new to quilting. I have learned a lot about moving fabric through my machine since (presser foot pressure) and you've got me wanting to give triangles another try. Also, that soup looks good! Life is good indeed!

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  12. Oh, I love the Marlborough region of NZ! The soup certainly looks yummy! And I’m loving too, where your

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  13. Pond quilt is going! I’m going to try to think of another name! I think you can do better. A special quilt needs a special name. Silly blogger published my previous comment before I was finished!

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  14. The green on the label of your wine is a similar colour to the solid. Maybe call the quilt Lofthouse?I bit obscure but there’s nothing wrong with that, is there?

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