Quilting Donna’s Wedding Quilt

Donna Mo is a really, really good friend of mine who I met through the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild.  On a regular basis (about once a month) she comes to my house for a day or two of sewing.  And she doesn’t come to work on her projects, she comes to work on mine.  She has been such a great help to me this year, keeping me motivated, helping me check things off the list, and is just really fun to be around.  So I am really happy to be able to do things for her in return, and this was one of my opportunities.

Donna wanted really simple quilting on this one, and if there’s one thing I know about my free motion quilting, it’s that I find it hard to do simple, open, and big. This is where my pantograph patterns come in really handy.  Donna chose a large open stipple and I was happy to oblige.

Donna asked me if it was boring to work on a simple quilt, and I have to say… absolutely not.  Now, if all I ever did was large stipples day in and out, I think I would tear out my hair.  Sometimes, it’s nice to just give your brain and hands a break, and go on autopilot.  And it’s also nice when a large quilt can be finished quickly, since time on my frame is at a premium.

If there is one thing I can teach you about long arming in this post today, it is this: if you’re working on a quilt, and the quilting you have decided to do is non-directional, then load the quilt with the longest edges on the leaders if you can.  It’s something I only remember to do sometimes, but I always regret it when I don’t.

In the case of this quilt, I remembered!  The reasoning behind it really is to finish the quilt faster.  Having your machine use up as much of the width of the frame as possible means your have to advance the quilt fewer times, Not as much of the batting has to drag on the floor, and it makes better use of your time at the machine.

Donna brought over several pieces of batting, but I forgot to measure the quilt to see how much backing was needed.  This is a perfect point at which to measure the back, when it’s on the frame and not rolled on.

My long arm centering tape came in handy too – and my loose 120″ tape measure put to use as well.

Donna had suggested the other day that I use her quilt to test my theory about floating large quilt tops, so I did:

Right away, I knew I did not like the idea of the quilt dragging on the ground like that.  It seemed like an invitation to stretch in strange ways, and in the end I was right.  I much prefer having control of larger quilts, so I’ve decided that I will only float quilt tops if they don’t come to touch the floor and are not wider than my own arm span.  How’s that for scientific?

Well, Donna wanted stippling, and she wanted simple, so I chose Superior So Fine #402 Pearl for the quilting thread (in part because I can use pre-wound bobbins), my Stipple pantograph, and I was off to the races.  There’s really not much to report on the quilting, other than to say… I won’t float large quilts like this anymore. 

To endless possibilities,