Sunday, June 21, 2020

The third quilt received on Youth Day


I haven’t quilted the second quilt yet as the backing was too small to be clamped on my frame, so while waiting for new backing, I popped the third quilt on the frame.

This one had Minky backing and although it creates a stunning effect on the back, I am not a huge fan as it stretches like crazy and with the top not having that much movement (or stretch) can create a weird bubble-like effect on the front.  So apart from my rails, leaders and side clamps, I also make use of pins just to keep things going well.

What surprised me is how many brand new quilters I meet lately and the fact that they make use of a longarmer to quilt their quilts.  When I started quilting I haven’t even heard the word and believed to be a good quilter, you need to suffer through the whole process of piecing and layering and struggling with your domestic machine to eventually (months later) have a completed quilt.

I don’t complain if people trust me enough to finish their quilts but cannot help wondering how many amazing free-motion quilters are out there that may never find out just how good they are simply because they never tried or persevered.  I often look at quilts on my beds and realise they were done on my domestic machine and I’m (without boasting) in awe about what I was able to do on my normal little machine.

This quilt was made with 12” blocks and these are somewhat too big for my throat space and I had to make use of the saying by longarmers to ‘divide and conquer’.  This basically means you divide a block into smaller sections but still give all blocks a similar look.

Asked the quilter to give me 3 weeks’ time to finish and I am really impressed that I got this done  within 4 days.



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