Love At Home Quilt - Sneak Peak at Quilting

I designed this house block for a folk art quilt with house all over it. There are three trees. This is the quilting I did on it


Here is the stencil I used in the tree.

I auditioned my pattern on Press and Seal. The pattern is free motion. I did add 8 dots. 4 at the top of the hearts and 4 at the bottoms of the hearts as quides to help me get a more symetrical heart. I also added a few lines on the roof to help get that straight.

Here is the finished house. The nine patches are completely scrappy as you can see by the dinosaur.
This has been fun to quilt. See the whole quilt top here: http://colleensquiltingjourney.blogspot.com/2011/06/love-at-home-quilt.html

Colleen - Day 13 & 14 photos

On day 13 and 14 I finished the quilting on my quilt. I am so proud of it. I know I would have quilted it without this challenge, but it was fun to quilt it and show my pictures to every one. It was a fun challenge. Thanks to everyone.



Click on the photos to get a closer look at the quilting.

I love how the wool batting makes the design puff up like trapundo. This looks so pretty on the bed.

I will bind it as soon as I can and post the photos of the finished quilt here.

Thanks again to everyone.

Colleen - Day 13 & 14 not consecutive

I finished my quilting my quilt. I tried to post pictures yesterday, but blogger was down. I am away from home now, but will post asap.

Colleen - Day 12

Today is more stippling on the outside yellow piece.

Click on the photos for a closer look at the sewing.


Sue asked about the thread I was using.
The stippling thread on top is a yellow Bottom Line by Superior Threads. The bobbin is Gutterman 50 wt.

I used Soft Touch thread by YLI in black on the printed star points and in brown on the black star points. I wanted this quilting to show up a little.
I have used Gutterman 50 wt on all of the bottom and in a tan color.

Colleen - Day 11 Stippling

I have finished all the quilting except the stippling. I did the stippling around the star this morning. It is starting to look really nice!

Colleen - Not Consecutive

Just for your information, my days have not been consecutive. However, I am still trying to reach my own personal goal of quilting 14 days during this challenge. I may not win "the" prize, but have "won" several other things:

1. I have nearly gotten my quilt done.
2. I have better quilting skills.
3. I have gotten better acquainted with some really neat quilters.
4. I have had fun on this blog posting my photos and reading about your experiences.

I think I have WON!!!

Colleen - Day 10

On day 10 I judged the school science fair and came home mentally tired. I didn't want to start the stippling on my quilt so I got out a FMQ practice fabric and did two practice designs.

Colleen - Day 9

Yesterday I quilted all the outside border.
I have a very busy border so the quilting won't show much.

Colleen Day 7 & 8

I spent the last two days quilting and "un" quilting this star.



There are two different views because the photos were hard to take.

Two back photos. Stitching is hard to see.

Colleen - Day 6

I finished all my corner triangles. Now all the orange triangles are quilted.

Click on the photo to see an enlargment.

Next I will be quilting inside the center star. I marked it today. I did the Orange first to get myself warmed up. I didn't want to do the center until I was used to quilting more. I want it to look good.

Colleen - Day 5 sick but did a little

I did this corner. Bad photo. I hope my next photos are better.

This is what is in the corner. I left out the center circles. With black thread it just becomes to dark at the circles.

Colleen - Day 4 Looks like day 1-3

No pictures to post today, but it looks like the last three days. I finished the last border triangles. I started on the corner triangles. I am presently "unsewing" what I did there. I want this quilt to be done well. I really like the piecing and don't want to mess it up.

Colleen - Day 3 More of the Same

It may look like the same pictures over and over, but they really are different. I have done one side of the border each day so far.

I am getting better. I don't know if you can tell, but there is progress. I have never quilted feathers on a quilt before, so have never quilted so many feathers.

Colleen - Answering some questions

Mary Ann asked what kind of thread I use. I am going by recommendations of Harriet Hargrave and Diane Gaudynski.

I did my ditch stitching with Invisible thread made by Sew Art International. It is very fine and soft. I really like it. It is also some of the least expensive invisible thread there is. I used the dark thread because my fabrics are so dark.

For my bobbin work I am using Gutermann 50 wt. I bought this from Fat Quarter shop in the large spool.

My top quilting thread is YLI Soft Touch. It is a 60 wt thread. It is very fine and you can back stitch across it and not notice the double stitching. This thread is also less expensive than some of the other quilting threads.


Click on the photo to enlarge the writing.

Colleen of Oz also asked to see my full quilt. If you click on my name in the side bar, I posted a photo of the full quilt as my first post.

Colleen Day 2 Shows improvement

I quilted one more side of the border.
This shows much improvement over yesterday.

I have to overexpose the photo to get the quilting to show.

This photo is more true to color.

Colleen Day 1

My colors aren't real clear, but these photos showed the quilting better. I hope tomorrow to get better color.
I changed thread three times before I decide on using black. The fabric is so dark, that nothing else shows up. I like it to show a little but not to much. As you can see, I am learning.

It looks much better from a distance. I think I just need to practise more. That is what this is all about.

Help!!

I started on my feathers today. I am having difficulty with control. I can draw them beautifully on paper. Is the smooth line just something that comes with practice? I have done feathers before, but they were smaller and easier to make straight.

Beautiful work!

Everyone has posted beautiful things. I am somewhat envious, however, I did have a wonderful day with the family. I will begin on Monday after the company leaves.

Last night I did start working on the feathers in the triangles of my border. I used invisible thread. The problem was that it really was invisible! I took it out and went to the store today and bought two threads I think will work. On Monday I will try them out to see which I like. I like my quilting to be secondary to the piecing. I want people to say, "Oh, what a beautiful quilt!" And then take a breath and say, "Wow, did you notice that fabulous quilting." That is the look I am trying to achieve.

Colleen's first project for the Challenge

This is the first project I am working on in the FMQ Challenge. I already have it sandwiched and am currently working on the ditch stitching. I am using a wool bat. I plan to do stippeling in the light background. This will make the star and the surrounding squares stand out. I am considering doing feathers in the orange part of the second border to make the first black border and the jungle print triangles puff up. I am undecided on the quilting of the outside border and would welcome any ideas on how to quilt it.

I like to make pieced backs to use up the fabric from the front. I really like how this back turned out. The pinwheels are from left over half square triangles and the four patches were from fabric to small to use as squares. I am really liking this back. This is a full size quilt.