Category Archives: Machine Quilting

Quilt #2 of 2023

January 18, 2023 10:39 am ⋅ Pam

Quilt #2 is the 2022 Quilters By Hearts’ Desire Pizza Box Swap quilt. Last year we each put a length of background and focus fabrics, plus some FQs of coordinates in a pizza box. We made the first block, then at each meeting someone else took the box home. We don’t meet in December, so we received our boxes back in November with 10 additional blocks. I made a 12th block then put them together to make this quilt.

The blocks are set together with a 6″ wide sashing and corner stones giving the illusion of alternate blocks.

The quilt is custom quilted with several different quilt designs.

Outer border – Alienfleur Border & Corners
Inner border – ABM HFzag drop
Setting Triangles – Anne Bright Hippie Double
Setting Corners – Anne Bright Hippie Single
Pieced Blocks – Anne Bright Hippie 4 Block
Blocks formed around Corner stones – Sweet Dreams BD 2013 003
Triangles formed in sashing – Kalediscope

At this point I must give a huge shout out to Capri, the System Administrator on the Innova AutoPilot Mach3 Owners FB group and owner of Bear Paw Quilts. I posted in a panic Saturday morning about something weird in my file when I opened it to resume quilting. She spent nearly 2 hours on the phone with me working through fixing the issue, then teaching me what I needed to do to finish the quilting. She also suggested the quilting motif for the blue sashing, which still needed to be quilted after I finished the computerized quilting.

I’m not sure it shows well here, but it is Point to Point curves from corner to corner.

I took the quilt outside before I bound it and all of the great texture can be seen.

Quilt Stats

Started 1/9/2022
Finished 1/16/2023
Quilted with Glide 40wt in Cool Gray 7 – 4 bobbins
Legacy 80/20 batting
Top before quilting and washing 73 1/2 x 91 1/2
After quilting and washing 67 x 86 1/2

For the label, I created a document in Word and printed it onto printable fabric. I moved the blocks out of month order, so the label reflects the block order and includes the name of the quilter, the block they made and the month they made it.

This quilt is on my 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO Challenge list.

Posted in: 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO, Machine Quilting, Pizza Box

A Quick Finish of a UFO

December 30, 2022 6:47 pm ⋅ Pam

As mentioned in my Countdown Day 1 post, I took a class back in April 2009 on free-motion quilting on my sewing machine. Managed to get the center done in class and simply didn’t finish the piece. This afternoon I sewed a couple of FQ to the top and bottom so I could load it on my longarm.

Originally the intent was to do free-motion on the long arm, but I decided the piece was too small to mess with, especially since I had cool triangles I could drop into the corners.

I sewed an envelope closure and used an 18″ pillow form.

Posted in: Final Countdown, Machine Quilting, pillowcase

The Final Countdown with Prairie Moon Quilts

December 29, 2022 3:25 pm ⋅ Pam

I have sporadically participated in The Final Countdown with Prairie Moon Quilts over the years and I’ve decided to do it again this year.

Today’s task is:

Choose something you can finish quickly and do it

This past year I’ve been working hard to knock my UFOs out. I finished all 12 of the UFOs on my 2022 Brandon Quilters UFO Challenge list, plus another 5, so there’s not a whole lot left that is a quick finish. After going through my UFO list these are my options:

On the left is the Machine Quilting Sampler from a class in 2008. Free motion quilting on my sewing machine is not a skill I ever became proficient at and at this point it is unlikely that I will. However, my free-motion skills on the long arm could use some practice. I could add some fabric to each end so I can load this on my longarm and finish the quilting there.

On the right is another class project, this one from May 2012. The first thing I need to so is sit still, in good light, and do the embroidery, then I can decide how to finish the piece. Maybe I need to pull my notes and thread and set this by my chair to work on while I’m watching TV in the evenings. Currently I’m re-watching The Librarian — both the moves and the TV show.

A third option is to simply finish these blocks. I think there are 26 or 27 blocks that each need 2 more logs. Once that is done I can start on the quilt top. This quilt is on my 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO Challenge. It is what I’m working on until the next Quiltville Mystery Quilt clue comes out on Friday I want to have this quilt completed (quilted, bound, labeled and washed) by mid-January, so I can’t procrastinate on this quilt.

On my 2023 UFO list5 is the Pizza Block quilt. I plan to have finished by mid January as well. I haven’t decided how it will be quilted, but I can make the binding so when it comes off the longarm I can finish it.

Finally there is this quilt – Princess and the Pea.Also on my 2023 UFO list, I threw it on the long arm and the computer quilted it earlier while I was working on the log cabin blocks. Then I realized that I have no idea what I’m going to use for binding.

So, in summary the plan for my ‘quick finishes’ are

loading the machine quilting sampler on the long arm to practice my free-motion quilting
gathering the thread and working on the embroidery on my Faux Applique in the evenings
finish the last of the log cabin blocks so I can begin assembly
make the pizza box binding so it will be ready to go when when the top is quilted
decide and make the binding for the Princess and the Pea quilt.

I won’t get them all done before the first, but I should have significant progress on all of them by the 9th.

Posted in: Final Countdown, log cabin, Machine Quilting, Pizza Box, Princess and the Pea

Finish It Friday

November 11, 2022 9:09 am ⋅ Pam

On this Finish It Friday I have 2 quilts to share. First up is my Atomic Starburst, shown here hanging in my foyer on the new hanging rod.

This is one of three quilts I made with the FQ Bundle of Radiance + 10 ‘solids’. I’ve finished Shimmer, and still need to quilt Bauble ‘n Beads.

In each of the diamonds I placed a motif from a Double Wedding Ring Melon, then morphed it to fit the diamond. I did ruler work in the sashings and the starburst blocks.

My other finish this Friday is my 2019-2020 Quiltville Mystery quilt, Frolic.

I enlarged it and changed up the borders. It measured 118″ x 118″ before I quilted and washed it. Here it is hanging on my 12-foot quilting frame. I opted to do an all over Edge-to-Edge design called Fresco Feathers.

I only have 8-foot ceilings, ~~so I don’t~~ wait a minute, I have vaulted ceilings in my den, I might be able to get a straight on picture — if I had something wide enough to hang it on. I’ll have to think on that for another time. Here it is on my driveway before binding.

I bought a wide backing, but it wasn’t wide enough, so I added in a strip with ‘extra’ blocks. In reality I made those specifically for the backing.

Posted in: 2022 Brandon Quilters UFO, Atomic Star Burst, Frolic, Machine Quilting, Ruler work, Uncategorized

Now It’s Cleared

March 24, 2021 3:51 pm ⋅ Pam

Ok – so to move things along the other day I simply moved everything to the ironing/cutting station. But I’m happy to report that both flat surfaces are now cleaned. And I didn’t move it to another location – I actually put it away.

Even the shelving is looking better.

While I was cleaning, I stitched out two quilts – or rather the computer did.

Posted in: cleaning, Machine Quilting

Design Wall Monday – March 21, 2021

March 22, 2021 6:14 am ⋅ Pam

The wedding quilt is off the frame and trimmed.

Binding has been made. I’ll find out later if I need to cut another strip of the green. I don’t remember if I measured the purple or the green when deciding how many strips to cut and the purple was ever so slightly wider.

While I was working on the binding, I had the long arm running computerized E2E designs on 2 customer quilts. I have 3 more to do, but I plan to wait until I get the binding done on the wedding quilt before I load the next one. Once I pull the drawer out on the sewing table there won’t be any room to get by to the long arm. But before I do that I have to clear the table.

There was enough space to make the binding, but there’s no way to bind even a small quilt until the table is cleared off.

See what others are up to over at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday.

Posted in: binding, Machine Quilting, Wedding Quilt

August 1st – A Beautiful Day

August 1, 2020 9:40 pm ⋅ Pam

Today was a beautiful day.It was about 79 degrees this morning with a light breeze. I had gone out to get gas and didn’t want to stay in.

The grass had been cut yesterday and the ground relatively dry, so I pulled out my picnic quilt and sat outside for about 45 minutes.

Then it was back to quilting.

I finished the quilting on Cascade.

It’s not bound yet as I’m waiting on the binding fabric. I have to admit I LOVE how the quilting came out. I started with half an idea – simple straight lines the length of the “sashing” and “something curvy” in the diamonds. Instead I started with continuous curves in the diamonds, then had to figure out the “sashing”. I order the BIG HQ Swiss Cheese Ruler off of Amazon, but when it arrived I decided it was not the right size, so I found the original HQ Swiss Cheese Ruler locally and bought it Friday afternoon. After doodling with it, continuous circles is what I came up with for the ‘”sashing”. But I didn’t think there was enough quilting in the diamonds.

I queries Facebook and received several suggestions. That prompted the circle in the middle of the diamonds and because I’m too lazy to tie off 70 circles, I ran a straight line of quilting up the middle of each diamond to reach the circle. I can’t wait to get this bound and washed to see the final results.

To see me doing the ruler work for the center of the diamonds, click on the picture below.