The Sewing Annexe

miffy257

jpscloud wrote: »

I can see the pics now miffy - and WOW! What a fantastic quilt, I love your fabrics too. I can't believe that's your first ever quilt, it looks so professional :T
I'm really looking forward to getting to the actual quilting part, which I haven't tried yet. I can't use a thimble, but I might have to try and make myself use one - do you use one?

Thanks also for the advice re the machine. I'll get the manual out and try threading from scratch again tomorrow.

Thanks I'm very pleased with it, it's not perfect but pretty good. I quilted it on the machine, I have a special foot called a walking foot which helps with feeding the fabric through. It was hard work but I couldn't face doing it by hand. You can buy special sort of quilter's thimbles that fit on your finger my friend uses them.
http://www.cottonpatch.co.uk/acatalog/thimbles.html
Hope your machine is behaving now. Happy Sewing.:)

jpscloud

Thanks miffy I'll have a look at the thimbles... I was also thinking of maybe a leather one, will have to see. I think I'll have to do mine by hand, I don't think I can get the quilt centre under the machine if you see what I mean?

I've checked the manual and found out I was threading the bobbin the wrong way round, but I did have the top threaded right - bobbin correctly threaded didn't seem to make much difference, but I lengthened the stitch a bit (I was using eyewateringly tiny stitches before) and also adjusted the bobbin tension slightly as I think it was too high.

That improved things a bit, but still having some problems, so adjusted the top tension slightly also, and that seems to have got the right balance now, at least it's not jamming or breaking the thread every square now!

I also changed the needle, it was probably bent or blunted after me forcing loads of denim through!

newleaf

Beautiful quilt, and those thimbles look good too, thanks Miffy.

miffy257

Thanks miffy I'll have a look at the thimbles... I was also thinking of maybe a leather one, will have to see. I think I'll have to do mine by hand, I don't think I can get the quilt centre under the machine if you see what I mean?

How big will the finished quilt be, mine was about 77" by 77" it was a bit of a handful but to get to the centre I rolled it and pinned it with safety pins. I just quilted it in a grid pattern so I just went down one way and then turned it around and went across the other way. Have started a small baby quilt so that one should be a lot easier to quilt.
Happy Sewing.:) Thanks Newleaf

jpscloud

The one I'm doing works out at 84" x 84" - I'll see if I can manage to get it under the machine, it would be great to be able to do that.

I'm assembling the rows now, so the top will be finished soon. My cutting out leaves a bit to be desired though... the corners don't all meet properly!

miffy257

don't worry mine don't all match exactly, as my friend says "there are no quilt police!!!!!!":rotfl:
getting on very well with my playmat/quilt , have finished top now have to tack it to backing and wadding, then quilt. I only did patches for the centre bit and then added wide sashing so pretty straightforward. Happy Sewing.:)

jpscloud

Hi fellow sewing folk... I didn't buy a walking foot and I'm keen to get this quilt finished, so I've proceeded with hand quilting.

Getting the sandwich together was a bit of a faff... most tutorials tell you to do it on the floor but I'm not that limber, and I lack a large table, so I spread mine out on the double bed and used safety pins. It took a while but I managed it.

My hand quilting leaves a lot to be desired but I'm quite surprised at how fast it's improving as I work. I can't get used to a thimble so I am using ordinary elastoplast on my first two fingers, and that's working very well.

The specialist quilting thread I bought is too dark for the reverse of the quilt, which only highlights my wonky stitching, so I'm using some cheapo polyester thread that I happened to have in exactly the right colour.

Eventually I might have to "re-quilt" this one, it's a learning exercise after all!

miffy257

Well done to you jpscloud and good luck with the quilting. I'm just tacking together my baby quilt and can't decide whether to hand or machine quilt it. might do a bit of both. Will go and get on with it in a minute, can't do much else as rain is pouring down here.:(

gibson123

Hooray!! I have finished my friends wedding dress, very happy with it. it is not traditional as it is in grape duchesse satin to go with her roses and thistles bouquet. it is an empire line and very flattering, for light relief I made a bag for another friends 60th birthday. it is in a finch print furnishing fabric (she a bit of a twitcher). I will post pictures on facebook when I get a chance. My arm muscles are aching, it think it is the weight of the satin and my fingers are tingling with all the hand-sewing finishing. Happy but tired. Happy sewing everyone.

miffy257

That sounds fab gibson123 Have just been doing some machine quilting on my latest quilt but am tired now so thought I'd stop before I make a mistake. Happy Sewing all.
PS could you give us a link to your facebook page so we can see your projects many thanks