Monday, August 10, 2015

A Finish!

Finishes are wonderful aren't they!  Such a good feeling when all your hard work results in a wonderful quilt!  I started Country Roads several summers ago to use up some old stash.  The pattern is Simply Woven from Moda Bake Shop and really is a fun project.  The results are a quilt that looks much more complicated than it is!



I knew when I made this quilt, that I would machine quilt it as we can't hand quilt them all.  So I chose to try spiral machine quilting to finish this one!  I don't know if I will ever master free motion quilting but walking foot quilting is doable and now that I have my second quilt under my belt I am feeling more comfortable with it.  My shoulders are relaxing, but I still need to remind my self to let the machine do the work and by going slow and adjusting enough it can go quite smoothly.



I have to give a shout out to Cathy over at Sane, Crazy, Crumbly Quilting who was so kind to give me a heads up on how to finish the very beginning of the spiral. The walking foot doesn't let you go much smaller than a four inch circle.  So she suggested marking and
using a regular foot to finish off the spiral.  It worked wonderfully.  I used my open toe foot so I could see exactly where I was going! Thanks Cathy!

I use Hobbs Poly/Down batting and even though it is pretty heavily quilted when it came out of the wash it was nice and soft.  I am so glad that I have given machine quilting another go!

19 comments:

  1. Beautiful job! Love your spiral quilting on that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The texture is really wonderful! So nice to have a complete finish!

      Delete
  2. a pretty quilt! and the quilting looks great on it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I am glad I took that craftsy class it has helped me a lot! You are right, we can't do them all by hand.

      Delete
  3. Oh my - you did a great job of that quilting! Love the photo of the quilt in the fork of the tree - naturally brings out the colours :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My favorite tree for taking quilt photos! My neighbors must think I have lost my mind!

      Delete
  4. Great quilt! I love the machine quilted spiral, will put it on the to do list.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It looks great - I love the spiral. I'm impressed you could do that with a walking foot. I may have to try it :0)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah I just line the edge of the walking foot up against the previous stitching. Definitely need to keep the needle down , stitch slowly, and adjust a lot! It gets easier as you go and the texture you create inspired me to keep going. It took several days but it was worth it!

      Delete
  6. I love this scrappy quilt and the spiral quilting and the fact that you did this on your home machine. That was a lot of bulky quilt to deal with in the machine. It is amazing. I love all the scrappy quilts you make.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your photos really show off your spiral quilting. It was a great finish for your scrappy quilt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I am glad I decided to try this! Love the texture that was created!

      Delete
  8. It is fun to piece for sure! I thought all those straight lines called out for something with curves. I am not comfortable with FMQ but this is doable for me!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks! I love taking outdoor photos as I have no skill when it comes to photography

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a fantastic quilt. And, I love the circular quilting!

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a beautiful quilt ... staged perfectly for the "photo shoot". I love the spiral quilting ... what fabulous texture it provided without overpowering the piecework.

    ReplyDelete