Monday, June 22, 2015

Wrens and Friends-First Offical Quilt in Axel



The test piece I had quilted on my HQ Avante, Axel, had loopies on the back, and tension problems where I made curves. I took it to a group of ladies over the weekend, and asked their opinion. A mid-armer in the group told me when in doubt, just rethread your machine. Can we give her a standing ovation? Confetti?

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best, and, "Yes, it worked!" It worked because I used the diagram in my book, and found I had it threaded incorrectly the first time.

Time to do a real quilt now. The above fabric is the backing of a quilt I made for my oldest daughter last fall. Gina Martin for Moda designed this Wrens and Friends line along with this very sweet border print. I wanted to be sure I balanced the edges of the quilt so I didn't ruin the border, so I reversed the border, using it as center. 

I seamed mirror images together, and loaded it so the seam ran horizontally. If your seam orientation is this way, you can eye it with the bar as you roll it up. If you see it as a straight line down that bar, you know you've got it pretty even. If I had loaded it with a vertical seam, I would be forever measuring and adjusting the seam to lie in the center as I rolled. 

Now the widely space floral that comes off as dots will lie along the border. A little inconsistancy will not be seen, and I might expect that with my first quilting.


I only have a handful of thread colors right now so we chose pale yellow for the top thread, and off-white for the bobbin. Loopies for the center are very quick, and remind me of the path of a bee. With hexagon blocks, it seemed fitting. The border will be a different pattern.


No time to dilly-dally online today with daylight burning at 6 a.m. I hope you all enjoyed a Happy Father's Day, or a Trevlig Midsommer, whichever you celebrated this past weekend. The Pet Project Show is still in progress through today at midnight, and you may link up as many projects as you've done over the past week.



Cheers to all WIP's, and remember we're coming to the end of the second quarter for Finishes on the Windy Side. Finish them up, and follow along as bloggers post their beautiful work with Adrianne. I hope to have this in my stack by then.



8 comments:

PugMom said...

Looks great Julie!

Brita said...

Terrific! I have the same machine, which is wonderful most of the time. But some days, for no apparent reason, it gets cranky. Just letting you know, don't get anxious if it isn't always smooth sailing, and just walking away for awhile is the best fix. Relax, enjoy, practice!

evaj said...

Thank you Julie for your linking and inspiration you give to Show and Tell Monday !! Hug Bambi

Pedal Sew Lightly said...

So glad you got your threading issue worked out! Your loops are so fluid. That is one of my favorite patterns to FMQ on my domestic machine but it never looks that smooth.

Beth @ Cooking Up Quilts said...

Your loops look so good, and that backing fabric is perfect! Whenever I have issues with thread breaking, etc I rethread my machine and it almost always takes care of the problem. Sometimes I don't remember to do tis until after I messed with it first....duh...but when I finally remember, bam, it's fixed. :)

Ruth said...

Thanks for the reminder - still have time to finish a thing or two... Love the wrens and friends fabric range - loopy quilting looks great with it!

Julie said...

From Irene K, via Pink Doxies contact form, asking me to please post: This is so exciting.....you are a genius in my quilt-manual!! You have no idea how inspired I feel - just looking at your work! Looking forward to sharing the fun.

Regards,
Irene

Sandra Walker said...

Better get downstairs and quilt a bit more on one of mine while the daylight lasts... :-) Love seeing the stages of this quilt, Julie, and I am so jaw-dropping amazed at what you are doing.