Tim Gunn would love me, I always make it work, even when I’m having a nightmare. Actually I’m happiest trying to find a fix or a shortcut to make life easier/simpler.
I decided to make a wall hanging out of this panel for my Mum’s 70th birthday but my quilting skills are not great. So I threw myself into quilting it, and then this happened…
Oh no, the borders are so wiggly! Densely quilting the centre has reduced the size by about an inch and a half. Densely quilting the borders too would use up all that wiggle, but I wanted to just follow the swirls in the borders. Plus the panel is now wonky so I’m going to do something drastic…. I started by cutting the borders off along the red line, cutting the corners as mitres to keep the dark blue border. If I’d cut off top and bottom then sides as lines, the dark blue borders wouldn’t have matched up.
Next was to straighten the panel which I did by blocking it – dampening the panel and then using lots of heavy things to make it dry straighter. On a large quilt you would pin it to the carpet making sure it was perfectly square. It’s not a necessary part of your average quilt, but for competitions it makes a big difference when it’s hanging up. I did have to do a little trimming after but I’m quite pleased with it.
Now I need to rejoin the borders! I did like that burgundy-red little border so I found an identical colour (when you have too much stash that kind of thing happen a lot 😉 ) and cut some 1″ strips to replace it. The border would come out wider but 3/4″ would have been harder to attach. I attached the red to the borders and laid it right-sides-together on top, and some backing fabric r-s-t on the back, and sewed them both on at the same time. I ironed them and slotted some batting in between, butting it up so there wouldn’t be any gaps. Looks perfect!
Urk, you can see my freemotion quilting really well there, don’t look too hard! I’m definitely a beginner, I tried a few patterns but I followed the fabric design. At the Festival of Quilts in 2018 Jacquie Lawrence and I met a lovely lady called Hilde Van Schaardenburg. I have trouble free motioning because I don’t see images in my head. It’s called Aphantasia – imagine your partner, your kids, your house. Can you see a picture of them in your mind? Me, there’s nothing. So I can’t picture what I want to sew, it’s more “Okay I’ll go here and then, agh, um I’ll go here and then, this will do, urm, where am I going?”
After explaining this to Hilde, she suggested I try freemotion on patterned fabrics instead or batiks and follow what I can see on the fabric rather than guessing where to go. It was a revelation – I finally knew where to go next! There may have been tears. It really was a very emotional moment. Hilda gave me a signed copy of her book and some bits of batik to practise on. So I’m practising but I’m definitely not a natural!
The corners were a bit of a pain, I ended up drawing the stitching lines, having a nightmare sewing them and going for faking it instead – I ironed the top edge under, tucked in the red border and just ironed it so it looked right and hand sewed it – easy peasy. There are rules in quilting if you’re making competition or heirloom quilts, but if you’re making for you shortcuts are the best. I won’t tell you how I did the back because, well, I kind of mashed it together.I really should have done it in the same way. And mitred the red border too buy hey, hindsight is 20/20 and all that. You only learn from mistakes! Since this is a wall hanging you won’t see the back once it’s hung, and my mum won’t look too hard hopefully 😉
So, more freemotion along those swirls. I’ve used invisible thread throughout because it just works better in my Pfaff Performance 5.0. It’s ironable, so long as you’re really quick but it will melt if you’re not careful. After the quilting I don’t tend to iron it much anyway and it’s not like I’m ever going to iron a quilt out of the wash. Ironing is for piecing quilt tops only!
A red binding and a hanging sleeve and it’s done. Overall it’s now % smaller than the original panel. I won’t be densely quilting anything big for a long time yet, I need far more practise. And on that note I’ve finally finished a big project I’ve been working on for some time, so that will be my next blog…
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