This week I started on the quilting of my Target Practice quilt. But more on that later.
First off I wanted to talk about my next quilt. The pattern is called Calling Card from Bluprint (Craftsy). It's sold as a kit but I was able to get the pattern for free through my Bluprint membership. Here is a picture of the fabric that I pulled for it.
For the throw size, the pattern calls for a layer cake or 42 10" squares. I'm using my batik fat quarters that I brought a while back and also some stash batiks that I have. I cut more squares than called for so I can make it really scrappy.
This pile of squares make me happy unlike my Target Practice quilt. Why you might ask? Because the quilting on Target Practice did not go well. As I said last post, quilting is not my favorite thing to do. I love picking out fabric. I love cutting fabric and sewing it back together. I love pressing fabric. I love putting the binding on quilts. But I hate the actual quilting of the quilt. Except for the plus quilts. I don't have to think too hard on how I"m going to quilt those. But all my other quilts...yeah, quilting is not what I look forward to. If I could afford it, I would send my quilts out to be quilted by a professional.
So what happened? I wish I had thought to take a picture of what happened. But I didn't, so you'll have to use your imagination as I tell you about my quilting misadventures.
It started out fairly good. I got my bobbins threaded, changed needles, put on my walking foot, checked the tension on the machine and started the quilting. My quilting plan was to quilt a grid (vertical and horizontal parallel stitching lines) using my quilting guide bar because I didn't want to mark the quilt. But after 3 hours I was utterly frustrated and close to tears. My stitches were very crooked and uneven and too close together. (Have I mentioned that I don't like densely quilted lines?) So I decided to take a break. Two hours later I came back and spent the next 1 1/2 hours with my seam ripper taking all the stitches out. And while doing that I realized that the seam on my backing didn't line up with the seam on the quilt top. Ugh!!!!!!
So I've decided to start all over. I'm going to take all the pins out and re-baste (?) it and then try the quilting again. This time I think I'm just going to quilt in the ditch all around the arrow blocks and then do something super simple in the borders.
Anyway...that's it for now. It's time to watch the Colorado Avalanche (Second Round - Game 1) hockey game.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. And I will see you all next week. Hopefully I'll have finished quilting Target Practice by then.
Camille
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