Quilting for a Holiday Runner

[lotti]

after seeing ricky´s videos i´ve gotten totally hooked on that fabulous water soluble thread. it´s fantastic for "basting" your quilts. i sort of SID everything with the water soluble thread (as the thread is washed away after the quilt is done i just follow the main seams - but don´t worry about being straight or in the ditch at all), then i can FMQ to my hearts content without anything shifting and without worrying about pins / threads remaining where they shouldn´t. after i´ve finished the quilt it gets washed anyway and all the unwanted stuff disappears.

[Renata]

Yup, Lotti... I was saving my Superior water soluble thread for trapunto but I have to do another holiday runner after the current one I am fighting with because of tension!!!! :evil: (and I had even worked out a swatch and documented the tension settings :roll: ), but if I don't need SID in the end, I might try the water soluble on the next runner... why not? Have a good night!

[Renata]

What a beautiful table runner Renatta! Not much quilting teaching here but! we can practice and encourage each other. To be fair, we can alternate cooking if you like Mexican food. I can teach you Spanish if you teach me Italian. :wink:

[Reetzbobeetz]

Hey Limbania, great to see you again! Renata, I am sorry that you are having tension issues. Hope they are sorted by now.

[Renata]

The tension issue was the weirdest thing. I made a 12" block with all the fabrics, wadding and backing that were used to piece the runner and tested my thread by duplicating the design I FMQ'd. I picked out my tension (top and bottom threads) and went for it. When I started FMQing on the runner I kept getting minor pokies on the back but I was trying to eliminate those too and as I adjusted tension, it started turning into a nightmare.

Anyway, I was using King Tut in the top and Bottom LIne as the bobbin thread. When I switched the bobbin thread to Aurifil, all my problems went away--I was able to get the right balance between front and back. Mind you, with the Bottom Line thread, I even threaded the bobbin for embroidery and experimented with tightening the bobbin tension (I have a Bernina 830 so that is super-easy to do.). Does anyone have any addition advice for using Bottom Line with King Tut on a domestic machine? I really want to use Bottom Line in the bobbin for my projects, when possible.

Originally I was going to do swirls, and I played with Libby Lehman's ribbons that Margo suggested, but in the end, the quilting that spoke to me the most (and I tried them all) was Rosemary's curls and stars so that is what I went with. Thanks, Rosemary!

I finished the blocks, now I am off to do the two borders. Here is where it is right now. I have done lots of practice pieces and have a nice stack of 10" blocks filled with FMQ, but I am always reluctant in putting FMQ on a nicely pieced quilt so I can't say I'm satisfied with how it turned out but it is the best I am capable of doing right now and that's all I'll say! I'll post again when it's finished.

[Margo]

WOW! Renata, zooming in on your quilt shows your wonderful quilting! Good job!!

[Renata]

Margo, coming from you who does such beautiful quilting, that's like getting a "10" from Len on "Dancing with the Stars"! I know it's not a "10" but now it feels like it! :P

[rehak]

I think it looks wonderful, Renata! Your quilting is much better than you let on!! I would invite you to my house to teach me your quilting, but then I might have to cook and you definitely wouldnt' want that!!

Nancy

[Reetzbobeetz]

Renata, your quilting looks great. Everything is very consistent and so it works really well. You are better at this than you think you are.

[Reetzbobeetz]

Renata, you are way too humble! The stars and loops look great! Can't wait to see the border quilting! YOU GO GIRL!!!

[kfstitcher]

The loops and stars are perfect! It reminds me of snowflakes and you did a great job.

[Renata]

Thank you everybody! But why didn't I have fun doing it? :? Well, maybe towards the end...

[Margo]

Renata, the more you do it, the more comfortable and FUN it will be!

P P P = practice, practice, practice!!!!

[Margo]

Renata, the FUN will come when you are confident and comfortable with your quilting. As Margo says, PPP!! When you have done these types of designs over and over and over, and then many more times, then it will be fun! It has to become second nature... when you don't have to think much about it, you will find yourself just sitting down at the sewing machine, and stitching away In The Zone! That's when it becomes fun!

Just keep on making quilts and projects, and getting them quilted and soon, you'll realize it's FUN!!

[LoriReid]

Great stars and swirls, Renata. I agree with the others that your quilting is much better than you think.
Lori