Wednesday, April 30, 2008

More Quilting on Lenni


On Saturday I was able to go back to the quilt shop and do some more quilting. This time I chose to do an overall clamshell pattern on my quilt (Dancing Fans). Since I had trouble loading my quilt the day before I brought my camera so I could capture those steps in pictures that I could look at later in case the procedure gets a little lost in the misc. files in my brain. Sharan was kind enough to get me started, and once I figured out what my error was, things went swimmingly and it only took me a short time to get ready to quilt!

My problem was that I pinned on the wrong side of the leaders. I had pinned on the front side of the leader instead of the back. Much easier to pin correctly, and everything clicked immediately.


I got out the clamshell pantograph, set it up and was on my way. The quilting went super fast and I only had a few issues. One turn I had the quilt a little too tight and my thread broke several times. A few of the fusible appliques were starting to come up, and I discovered that I definitely do not have the fine control I am used to when using my home machine. I wonder if that will come with practice, or if it's machine related. I love the bottom line thread for the bobbin. I plan to buy a spool of it to try out on the Juki with free motion quilting. I'll do black or maybe red for the commision quilt I am working on next week. Love the way it just disappears into the back (of course I used a nice busy back also so that helps!

All in all I was quite pleased with the way my second quilt went. Not sure it's really much of an option for paid work, as at $15.00 an hour it cuts into my profit greatly. But it might be a really fun thing to do on some of my personal quilts. The next quilt I am going to go without the stitch regulator and do some free motion work, just loops and flowers I think. Don't know if I'll get to quilt at work today, but maybe next week will work out for that.


Oh, and one piece of advice - don't try clamshells your first time out. It seems like a simple design, but because the clamshells have to connect just so, it's probably not the best choice for a first time machine quilter.

Just Sayin'

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