02 September 2010

My Creative Space

And basting, and hoping, and wishing, and basting...
nice lines courtesy of the walking foot
And the completed top!
finished back - featuring a bit of my own fabric screenprinted at Harvest

 

I spent a lovely few days at the beach shack working on a baby quilt, and it is the first quilt I ever made with wadding and, erm, actual quilting... It's a present for some lovely friends who are expecting their first baby.
I took my darning foot in the hope of doing some freestyle quilting, but boy, that was the last time I tried that. Donning some washing up gloves and attempting to wrangle the quilt through the poor Bernina swearing loudly at 8 in the morning is not an experience I want to repeat. All I managed to produce were some sad lines that looked like worms. So I decided to quilt it in the ditch, which is just a fancy way of saying follow the lines. I used a newly purchased walking foot, which works great, if you work out how to attach it to the machine (thank you husband with the relevant skills). And I basted the heck out of it too - I didn't pay much attention to the basting process first, which resulted in the quilt practically eating itself when I started the stitching. It just bunched up like a Victorian frock. So I did it again, and I really hated that part and was prepared to declare that quilting is not my thing. I just had to repeat 'pins are your friends' as I downed coffees and basted until my knees were getting sore from crawling around on the floor. But when I sewed those lines and the quilt turned into that lovely quilty texture I did get quite hooked on the process. I do love the result, particularly the texture. I love the fabrics too. They seem special to me now that I am using what I have in my stash and not buying any new fabric so that I can downsize and start focussing on using recycled fabric.

More spaces over at Kootoyoo.

9 comments:

A Life So Peachy said...

it is lovely! Love the colours, the lines. I'm sure baby will love it!

Fiona said...

What a lovely present! I haven't had the courage to try quilting yet and the need for basting might just put me off for ever!!

Beck said...

It looks divine, so pretty & original. Yay for recycled fabric xo

small forest said...

Beautiful colour choices!

Estelle said...

Your quilt looks so lovely, beautiful colour choice. I'm hoping to do the Harvest Textiles course myself later in the year.

shine little light* said...

Oh its just lovely! great work!

Gina said...

Woo hoo, your lines look awesome! Well done. I too dislike basting but you are right, it really is necessary and therefore must be embraced! Right, I'm off to fing my walking foot and quilt something....

Tracey@bountifully said...

adorable, I love those lines, what a great job you have done!

Photography said...

Very Nice!!