Back in early May, I made this quilt using an upcoming line called Feather River from Birch Organic Fabric for quilt market. I was excited to work with this line as I really liked the colors and patterns in these fun prints.
I finished the quilt top with plenty of time to spare (despite that I had just returned home from my 3rd trip in 5 weeks) and got ready to quilt it with my walking foot. Well, no point in going into details again but my walking foot was "unavailable" so I figured instead I would FMQ (free motion quilt) it. That would have been no problem a year ago but since it has been about that long since I've FMQ'd anything bigger than a mini, I kind of had to remember how!
I started FMQing the flower pattern I used to use frequently but it was just awful so I did what I don't usually do and unpicked it and put on my regular piecing foot, thinking I could just straight line quilt with that. Well, um, nope - that didn't work at all. Though I will say it has before so I'm sure stress had something to do with this :)
So, I unpicked the stitches AGAIN and put the free motion foot back on and decided to try the loop quilting you can see in the photo BUT my thread kept breaking, my stitches kept skipping, and I can't even remember what else but it just wasn't working. I put a photo with a call for advice on Instagram and within minutes I had several people offering their help. Hours later, a couple of facetime chats, and tons of suggestions tried, I was still having some issues but on a much smaller scale and I was able to finish the quilt. Quilty friends are the best!
I should note that, because of all the travel, while I finished the quilt top with time to spare, I meant days, not the weeks it would have taken to bring my machine to the dealer and get it (and the walking foot) checked/fixed. Oh, and just FYI, the binding in the above photo is the canoes print from feather river - so cute!
Anyway, the quilt made it to quilt market and I just wrote a tutorial/pattern if you want to try this design yourself. You can find it on the Birch blog.
I really should write a post about all the helpful advice I received that enabled me to actually finish the quilt. Okay, adding it to the list . . .
I'm glad you hung in there and got it finished! It is pretty and will be wonderful to sleep under! Good job...hugs~
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you were able to get it done. One thing I have learned with quilting- stress can certainly create more problems! This quilt is really beautiful though, Beth!
ReplyDelete:) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation
Loops are looking good. Glad you solved the problems.
ReplyDeleteit's such a lovely quilt. I'm glad it all worked out in the end.
ReplyDeleteSuper fun prints. So glad the IG / quilty community could help you get going. There is nothing as frustrating as constantly breaking threads and bobbin barf and skipped stitches when you are trying to FMQ.
ReplyDeleteYou ended up with a beautiful quilt! Quilters are wonderful about coming to the aid of others - makes them a wonderful group to belong to! Love the fabrics you got to use :)
ReplyDeleteI do love a stripe-y binding! And the loop-de-loop FMQ is fab. Way to go for sticking with this quilt - with all that unpicking, I might have been tempted to jam in into the WiP cubby and not touch it again for months. That's generally what happens when a project goes pear-shaped around here!
ReplyDeleteIt's charming and the fabric line is great! Love the way you used the canoes. And the car camping fabric I like.
ReplyDeleteGran trabajo, me encanta!!
ReplyDeleteVengo de Crazy mom quilts.
Felicidades.
It turned out great, Beth! I love those quilting loops you chose. Perfect!
ReplyDeleteHi, well I really like your project>neat fabric line!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
msstitcher1214@gmail.com
I love it, glad you stuck in there and got it finished. crystalbluern at onlineok dot com
ReplyDeleteSuch a pretty finish and incredibly cute fabrics. Love the binding. And I have to agree. Quilting friends are the best!
ReplyDelete