Barbara is still out of town on a business trip. That left me with a sewing room, and an unfinished quilt. I don’t have anywhere near her experience with quilting, but what I lack in judgment, I more than make up for in confidence! With a little bit of help via texting, and FaceTime, I decided to try to complete my quilt top.
I will jump to the punch line and tell you that I’m pretty pleased with the result. It was not an entirely smooth process. One would never think that replacing a bobbin would be such a big deal. Or, that cleaning up the tangled mess of thread when you place the bobbin incorrectly would be such a challenge!
I also learned an important lesson about not keeping your fabric nearby when you are cutting on the cutting table. Fortunately, I had enough fabric that I was able to work around this, but, for a moment, I thought I was going to have to use this patched fabric. My wife assured me that this would have been fixable in the quilting, so, if I make the same mistake again, I won’t use such bad language.
I started by doing the appliqué of the fruit. I used a walking foot. After that, I switched to the regular foot, which, I’m sure, has an actual name. On a few occasions, I had to go back and redo seams, and, I messed up and put the seam of the back stripe on backwards, not once, but twice! Finally finished, here is how it looks now.
My wife and I both had birthdays last month. My gift was this neat pencil, for use with the Paper 53 iPad app.
I have primarily used it for quilt design. Here you can see my concept drawings for the completed quilt. I’m planning on quilting palm trees on the side panels. For the smaller side panels, I’m planning vines in green, with hibiscus
blossoms in pink. Too ambitious?
We found a nice backing fabric. It carries on the tropical theme. I’m not foolhardy enough to cut this one, cut the batting and pin this one by myself, particularly given how large the piece is. Barbara is still off working for another week, and the following week we go on vacation with our kids, so this quilt is going to be a wip for another few weeks!
I’d love advice on how to quilt the center balcony? I will stitch the slats for the windows, and plan to appliqué the iron railings. What about the rest? Stitch in a ditch? Follow my lines? And, what about the stained glass window? I want to preserve the look of colored glass. All ideas welcomed.
Finally, Albert was awarded Dog of the Day last week at Furst Choice Doggy Daycare. It has nothing to do with quilting, but we were so proud of him!
Also linking up with Maker Monday today. Check out her beautiful origami birds!
I love the idea of quilting pink blossoms–definitely not too ambitious. In the windows, I’d be tempted to quilt details from the interior … or maybe a little dog, looking out?
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What a cute thought! I appreciate your confidence. Let’s see how it looks on my practice scraps!
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Congratulations, Albert.
What a great quilt.
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Doesn’t he look dignified?
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This is your first quilt??! Amazing! I don’t have any advice to give on the quilting. I have a feeling you will know just what to do and that it will be marvelous!
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Thanks! I had a lot of help from my wife. She is pretty impressive!
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That is a really cool ap – I haven’t seen that. love the water-colour effect of the sketch. I like stitch in the ditch when I don’t want to distract from the fabric but I like your idea of quilting other images in the separate areas.
Colleen @ piecemakerquilts.wordpress.com
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Thanks for the recommendations! The app is fun. I don’t have a great deal of drawing ability, but I find it really helpful. The app itself is free, although I find the pencil helps
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Love it. The blossoms are gorgeous!
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Let’s see how well the quilting goes!
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Love the quilt, love the app and as for that photo of Albert……that is one cute dog! Personally I like the idea of quilting following your lines but, as has been said previously, I think whatever you do it will look great!
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Thank you for the kind words! My husband is excited about his quilt. We have been busy this summer and have taken a month and a half hiatus from quilting, but will try to get to work on it now. It will be interesting to see how it works out!
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I had no idea you also quilted! Nice job, specially for a first quilt, very ambitious 🙂
I just stuck to a simple blok pattern quilt for the first one! 😉
And nice to see Albert in there too 🙂
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Juan does a lovely job. He can quilt bougainvillea free motion!!! In fact this quilt has been languishing in the closet for nearly a year and a half, so I have just taken it out today and am doing the vining leaves around the outside, and will do vines and leaves all around the window, leaving space for Juan to add the bougainvillea! What a conincidence that you would see this now!
Albert and Victoria love the quilts, too!
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