Welcome to the last week of our quilt-a-long!
Today it's all about finishing up your quilt.
OK, so first off, I'd like to state, I am not an expert on free motion quilting, by any means! My husband (he is such a sweet man) helped me put together a video for today's post.
A few things to note....
For free motion quilting you will need to use a darning foot and drop your feed dogs. This will allow you to freely move your quilt with your hands rather than have the machine move it for you.
If you ever have a chance to take a machine quilting class, I would highly recommend it.
A few tips:
use the same color of thread on the front and back, so if the tension is a little off, it won't be very noticeable. I have found it's very hard to quilt something using one color thread for the front and a different colored thread for the back.
use a busy patterned fabric for the back of your quilt to help disguise mistakes.
if your thread keeps breaking, change your needle.
about managing bulk...I don't use any kind of clips or anything. I re-adjust the position of my quilt as needed. (which is a lot.) I let the quilt bunch up wherever it needs to and work on a small portion at a time. only half of the quilt bulk (or less) should be between the needle and the machine at any one time. I do not start in the middle of the quilt as some do. I start at one edge, and start stippling randomly, continually filling in the empty spaces.
A few links:
there is some great discussion on free motion quilting over on flickr
there are binding tutorials here and here. I'd recommend cutting your binding strips 2.5" wide.
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Label your quilt and enjoy! Oh, and if you want to instantly age your quilt, wash + dry it and enjoy the puckery goodness.
A few winners:
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for all of you who quilted along with me. It's been quite a journey, and I appreciate each and every one of you who have been on this journey along with me. It's been lots of fun and I appreciate you cheering me on and encouraging me along the way. It has FAR exceeded my expectations.
I'd like to send a little something to the following people, picked randomly from the participants: Suze and Mikilana.
Now, dare I say, any questions?