Quilting is it for Me?

Hope that everyone is having a very merry Christmas. It's been a very busy past few weeks for me. I will be glad when it is all over. One would think it would have been a bleak retail season, but not in the sewing machine industry. People are crafting and making more of their own gifts. In this time of a downturn, families are becoming closer by working on projects together. There were people doing last minute make-it-yourself gifts at 4pm today. It was hard to believe, but I think they get a rush off of it. Not to disrespect the procrastinators. Yes, even I have waited till the last minute before getting some quilting done.

With all hustle and bustle of the Christmas season I have managed to get some quilting done. I had thought I blogged on this quilt before now, but could not find an entry for it. I was working on a Quilt called Little Bits and it's from the book Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. I just love this book. I am thinking I might need to own a copy of this for myself. Neat idea's in this one. Anyways, I have done my quilt in red and black as you can see in the picture of it. (I may need to clean my camera lens!) This is the first big size quilt that I have quilted myself on my sewing machine. I have learned a few things from this.

Things I have learned from quilting my own quit!

1. Make sure you have lots of room where you can freely move the quilt. (I had to move my sewing machine to the dining room table to get the needed space.)
2. Make sure your tension is set correctly before you start quilting your quilt. (The seam ripper and I are becoming close friends)
3. Try to use the same color thread for the top and bottom. (Even when the tension was correct I could see little spots of the bobbin thread peeking through.
   
4. When they say use a walking foot there is a reason for this. (I had to buy one)
5. They say start quilting in the middle of the quilt and work your way out. They really mean start quilting across the middle to lock it down and work your way out. (You can now tell where I started and stopped on this quilt.)
   
6. One should pull the bobbin thread to the top of the quilt. (I have a few birds nests on the back of the quilt)
7. Your seam allowance for one type of foot may not be the same for a different foot. (I was trying to put the binding on with one foot and was getting too much drag so I had to put the walking foot back on, but did not change the needle position so my seam allowance was off)
8. Make sure you're using the correct seam allowance for your width of binding. (As in number 7, I had made 2" binding and needed a 1/4" seam allowance, but with the walking foot on I ended up with 3/8" and it was too big. So the binding would not fit around the quilt.)
9. Whacking off is a quilting term and not an adult term. (Because the binding was too small and did not fit right on the quilt, I now have to whack it off (cut) and put on new. I am sure none of you out there have ever done this.)
   
10. 2 1/4" binding is easier to work with than 2" binding.
    
11. I am a better piecer than a quilter. (I just need more practice at it)
12. I am not as good at binding as I once thought.

Hope you have a very Merry

Charlie

P.S. As of this post I am one year older. I took my birthday money and bought myself a new Dell computer. I got it on clearance and saved over two hundred dollars. Ya me!