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WIP Wednesday [all about the Great Aunts]

I set my machine up for free motion quilting. This may not sound hard and it isn't, but it is annoying. I love my machine, a Husqvarna Viking Sapphire, but the quilting table has to be described as one of the worst designed things ever. It is a flat piece of acrylic with six screw on plastic adjustable legs. Which snap if you breathe on them. I've recently bought some new ones so I currently have 6 working legs, but I also have a couple of mugs which happen to be a perfect height to support the table when I inevitably break one. For this reason, setting up to fmq is a task. But one I tackled on Monday night.

And I was glad I did. One of my Finish Along projects for this quarter was the quilt made from blocks I got when I was Queen Bee for Stash Bee. In October 2012. From the word go this was going to be a quilt for my great Aunt, Iris, because she told me her favourite colour was purple and I didn't have enough purple in my stash then to make a whole quilt. I think I still don't have enough purple. My Bee Mates did me proud and I got enough blocks for a generous lap quilt - 56"x73". And I can now happily say that it is quilted!


It's not my best quilting ever, but it does what I need it to do - with such a scrappy quilt, I was finding it hard to see the pattern created by the blocks. By quilting the squares created by the trellis design, it refocuses the eye to see that pattern.

Unfortunately the back is a bit baggy - I'm not sure if I don't need to do some extra quilting - maybe straight lines on the inside of the white.... any thoughts?

Aunty Iris was my Granny's sister. Granny died when I was eight, and her brother Raymond died when I was young as well, but Aunty Iris, Aunty May and Aunty Lil are still alive. Aunty Lil has severe Alzheimer now, but Aunty May, although not in great health, still has all her marbles. So I felt that if Aunty Iris got a quilt, then Aunty May should too. I'm ashamed to say that it was rather a last minute thought. I am intending on giving Aunty Iris her quilt in a few weeks time, and I had the thought about Aunty May about four weeks ago, so the pattern had be fairly straightforward. I decided to continue the theme started with my Baby Paws quilt - simple patchwork plus a bit of applique. Though this time I picked flowers rather than bear paws for the applique.

I added the petals using iron on stickiness - peeling off the paper back put in a thoroughly grumpy mood. I then free motioned around the edge of each petal twice and then echoed the shape inside each petal. I added a few flower centres and ta-dah!

And I love how it looks from the back too (please ignore the bagginess - it seems to be a theme)!

I now need to make a fair stack of binding and wait for Mia to fall asleep again to start trimming...

Linking up with WIP Wednesday.

Comments

Grit's Life said…
Your FMQ looks wonderful. Is perfect for your quilts.
barbara woods said…
i always wash mine and then decide if it needs more quilting, sometimes that fixes it
pennydog said…
I have the same table- none of the legs have snapped (desire being hopped on regularly by a puppy) but I do have a problem when quilting as the quilt sneaks around at the right hand side and gets snagged between the table and machine and I an forever correcting it, grrrr
Lin said…
Both pretty quilts Jenny and I am sure they will love them. Have you tried starching the backing fabric when you press it? If you have a soft fabric it helps to hold it firm while you quilt and then can just be washed out. xx
mumasu said…
These are both really lovely and your quilting's great :)

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