As an incentive to get some projects completed, I’m participating in A Lovely Year of Finishes hosted by Sew Bittersweet Designs and Fibers of all Kinds.
I started this Love pattern by Tula Pink in November. It was super easy and fun to put together, but I was scared to actually start the quilting. There’s no hiding when quilting on all that lovely negative space.
I regret I lost sight of the diagonal lines in the gray and there is so much horizontal lines at the letters. But overall, I feel this is one of my best jobs yet.
To begin I was using So Fine thread and couldn’t get a good tension. I actually quilted almost half of one white square before giving it up. I’m not a believer in ripping out quilting, but I did this time. No matter how I moved the tension, I had thread sitting on top or on the bottom of the quilt. I switched over to Aurifil and the difference was dramatic. I read of a lot of quilters, particularly long arm, who seem to love So Fine, so I’m sure it’s a good quality thread. Maybe it’s the difference of quilting on a domestic machine, or perhaps my Bernina in particular, but Aurifil seemed to sink into the quilt with very little fussing with tension.
It may be hard to see, but the quilting on the left was done with So Fine and on the right was done with Aurifil.
And then there’s the binding. There’s something I despise about creating binding. I don’t mind actually sewing it on the quilt, but don’t like cutting it, piecing it, or ironing it. But I love the spools of binding when I’m done. It’s one of those little things that make me smile. And I love that Tula Pink recommends using a length of each fabric used in the letters. It’s a nice accent to the quilt. I roll my binding onto old wooden spools and, based on a suggestion in a recent Superior Threads newsletter, placed it on my thread spindle while sewing it to the quilt. (My Bernina has three spindles so there was room for the thread and for the binding.) It worked beautifully.
So that’s one finish for January. I still have a baby quilt and another special quilt to finish before the month’s out. I head to Florida for business for most of this week and lose some sewing time. I’ve gotten pretty greedy with my time and have begun to wonder if sewing is becoming an addiction. Hmmm..do I really want to find a cure?
threadtime 