If
you are the least bit observant, you may have noticed that as life goes, so
does quilting – or any other project you undertake. The beginning is exciting and challenging,
the end is – hopefully – rewarding
and satisfying, but the middle of a quilting project drags you down and hits
you with every negative emotion known to man.
The
middle of a quilting project is where you’ll discover evil “D” emotions:
Discouragement
Disappointment
Depression
Delusion
When your project looks like this – it’s hard to remember what it will look like in the end…
All of which usually leads us to ask, “Why am I even bothering with this?”
Quilters Have Great Need of
Endurance
My
friends we have need of endurance. I
really hate that word, endurance, but it is as completely essential in quilting
as it is in life. I’m thinking about
this right now, because I’m in the middle of my mermaid quilt and I am SO DONE
with it!
Unfortunately,
the quilt is not done with me.
I’ve
felt this way about a number of my projects – the dragon quilt comes to mind,
as well as my Lily Quilt Disaster. At
one point, I threw my lily quilt into a drawer and left it there for a year
before I could stand to face it again.
The good news is most of my little fabric art adventures don’t generate this kind of hatred, but when the middle of a quilting project is dragging me down like an extra hundred pound weight, I shift into survival mode.
Tips for Surviving the Middle of a
Quilting Project
As
with most other aspects of our lives that demand endurance from our souls, it
becomes easier to endure if you’ve got a few tricks up your sleeve. Some of these tips are practical, born from
experience, and some of them are psychological tricks to buck you up.
Either way, it’s essential to have a plan for when the going gets rough, because, my creative brothers and sisters, it will get rough sooner or later.
Tip #1 – Start another project
Having another quilting project – a much smaller project – that will take only a few hours or days of your time is a great way to relieve the boredom and tedium to be found in the middle of a quilting project.
Potholders is one project that you can get very creative with and finish in the course of a morning or two. Being able to finish something, anything, will help you feel positive about your skills again and regenerate your enthusiasm.
Tip #2 – Big projects and hard
deadlines don’t mix!
Never
start a big project when you’re under any kind of deadline. If you want to give your brother a double
wedding ring queen sized quilt for his wedding, for example, consider giving it
to him on his second anniversary.
All
the extra pressure will just exacerbate those negative “D” feelings that inevitably crop up in the middle of a quilting
project, and those emotions make it even harder to finish on time.
Tip #3 – You’re not making the whole
quilt, just this one section
I
recently read that “a man, having one backside, cannot sit two horses.”
Beyond the hilarious visual image – this is actually quite true. You’re not sewing the whole quilt in one morning. All you’re doing is attaching this applique, or stripping this section, or cutting this strip of binding.
So
try breaking your project up into manageable sections and only do one section
at a time. That way, if you find
yourself falling into the “middle of the quilting project doldrums” you can
just leave it and sew something else in between.
This
way, you won’t feel guilty about having an unfinished project because you
planned it that way!
Tip #4 – Be a show off
Show
the parts that you have finished to family or friends and bask in their
praise. Oftentimes you’ll be seeing a
mistake or problem in your quilt which a third party won’t even notice.
I
recently showed a project of mine to Barb – it was a fractured panel center,
and I had sewn all the horizontal strips upside
down! She didn’t notice, and
couldn’t see it when I pointed it out.
All she saw was the gorgeous twisting colors.
These reactions will really help re-up your enthusiasm for the entire enterprise.
The first Seam Ripper Champion ever – Karyl’s Summer Lily Quilt – was a great example of horrific struggles through the middle of a quilting project that yielded amazing results!
Tip #5 – Give yourself permission to
go slowly
The
more beautiful a quilt the harder it will be to get just right.
Keep
reminding yourself that fabric art – versus just quilting – is much more
involved and will automatically take a lot more time to complete. It’s much more important to do it right than
it is to do it fast. So give yourself
permission to be slow.
Tip #6 – Out of sight, out of pain
Put
your project away for a while. Make sure
it’s completely out of sight so that the nasty little guilt tripper that sits
on your shoulder and whispers in your ear will have nothing to say.
Tip #7 – Take a long look back
Look
back at some of the other difficult projects you’ve completed but thought you
never would.
Years
ago I made a double wedding ring quilt that my kids named ‘The Never-Ending
Quilt’ because it took me so long. But
now it has lived on our bed for 9 years already!
And
if you’ve never made a quilting project before – look back on another hard
moment of your life that you overcame with some patience and perseverance.
Just
keep reminding yourself that this too shall end and it will be worth it! Remember – Patience is not only a virtue, it’s
an essential in fabric art.
Special Announcement – Open Submissions!
Patience,
endurance, perseverance, and hard-won successes are the driving forces behind
our Seam Ripper Championships. Princess
YellowBelly is all about sharing rough experiences, not-funny-at-the-time
disasters, struggles with evil “D”
emotions, and that all-consuming battle in the middle of a quilting
project.
That
way, you can overcome the next struggle more easily.
Right
now we’re holding the first ever “open submissions” for our Seam Ripper
Championships. That means you don’t have
to be a member to submit your story of struggling with and overcoming fabric
hardships.
But we’re only holding this open till the 23rd.
To find out more about this opportunity, read the submission guidelines, and send us your tale of tragedy and triumph, go to the Seam Ripper Championships page! I can’t wait to hear your story.
Some quilters,
like me, want to make beautiful quilts without matching points. One of the easiest and best ways to achieve
this is by sewing beautiful landscape quilt designs. Landscape quilts are bold, eye-catching,
individually unique, and in my opinion a lot easier to sew and quilt than most
traditional patterns.
But with these
quilts you can’t start in the front – with your snow-capped mountains or your
fairies on flowers.
You have to start
with the background elements.
A background, by its very definition, is in the back. For most of us this translates as “not as important” or “the very least important part of your quilt.” After all, it’s the main pattern that you want people to notice. That’s where your talent shines.
Believe it or not – there’s a series of traditional pinwheel squares behind these colorful fish.
And this is true
as far as it goes, but we need to recall that old saying, “Behind every
successful businessman is his wife.”
In other words, in
any endeavor it’s the hidden, nearly invisible, foundation that has to be built
correctly in order for the structure to be of any use. So let’s take a look at how that translates
into fabric art.
Backgrounds Matter in Every Quilt –
Not Just Landscape Quilt Designs
Although backgrounds are vital to the success of any landscape quilts, and landscape backgrounds can also be a lot of fun, other quilts have background elements that need to be treated with respect in order to work.
Backgrounds are
the biggest areas in quilts and are therefore important.
If you don’t pick
the right background color or pattern, you’ll waste all your time, money and
talent because the “front pattern” will not pop out like it should.
I once spent 3
weeks selecting and cutting pieces for a double wedding ring quilt.
My choice was a
dark blue that matched the blue in the flower patterned fabric that made the
wedding rings – the “front pattern.”
After all that, when I sewed the first part together it was awful! Everything vanished and the pattern was
totally obscured. So it was back to the
drawing board for me.
Understand Quilt Backgrounds
We used a zipper back background on this autumnal wall hanging. The tree trunk cover much of the long-short stripping, but the effect is still to create an abstract, believably blurred out background.
To avoid this kind of waste, here are a few tips that will help you skip past the “learning from your own mistakes” section, straight to the “WOW” section.
Take the time to just think about
what you want your project to be and do.
Whether
it’s a small wall hanging or a king quilt, everything you make should have a
purpose which can vary from keeping you warm, to beautifying your home, to
impress, to show love, to tickle your funny bone, etc.
Backgrounds provide one of three
functions:
To fade
into the background. In this instance,
your background is simply providing the foundation for the real pattern or
foreground to live on.
To focus
most of the attention on a single entity in the pattern such as a mermaid,
dragon, house, etc. Here the background
does not fade out but enhances the foreground.
To carry
the same importance as the foreground.
This occurs when your background (as in our Running Wild panel) is the
equal to the foreground.
Choosing the Right Fadeout Color
If you want the
background in your landscape quilt designs to fade in the overall field
of vision a pale, muted color is best – beige comes to mind. Maybe I should call it cream, since it sounds
so much more sophisticated!
Seriously, though, look at the fabrics that will make up your main pattern, and you might be able to choose one of the colors in that to use as a background.
Although it looks like a plain cream background, if you look closely at this example of a landscape quilt design, you’ll notice that there are 4 different cream colors in each “leaf.”
This was the case on my famous/infamous ‘Home Pastures’ quilt. There was a certain shade of blue in each of our three main printed fabric panels. We took those panels to the quilt store, and searched through the entire selection of blue until we found a fabric that picked that shade up – and we used it as the sashing – which can be a type of background in itself.
If the choice
doesn’t just jump up and smack you in the face, try this:
lay out all the fabrics you think might work
Then lay one piece of your main design on top and see
which ones look yucky, okay, good, great, and fantastic. Of course, you want to use the one that looks
fantastic.
If you can’t decide, get another opinion. Michael and Suzanna are both great at
this.
Even
though your background is the largest part of your quilt, if you pick the right
color for it, your eye will see it but your brain won’t. This is also true for strongly contrasting backgrounds
– if it’s right, it vanishes under the weight of the overall effect.
Choosing the Right Focusing Color
When
the purpose of your background is to focus all of a viewer’s attention on
a single entity, you need to think and plan very carefully. Achieving this effect is more a result of
purposeful strategy than simply choosing the right color.
This
principle is often used in nature photography.
A background, even a very strong background like a mountain, is blurred out in order to focus all the attention on the bird or flower or whatnot.
The Milky Way Baby Quilt is at least 93% background, and a layered background at that. But the entire effect is to focus your eye on one tiny applique at the top – the cow jumping over the bucket and the moon.
If
you look at a Thomas Kinkaid painting, you’ll notice that everything points to
one place – usually a house. He achieved
that effect with all the background details and his unique use of light.
You
can do the same with your fabric art.
Pick out one or two things that you want to focus viewers’ attention on, and then pick images (flora, fauna, water, wildlife, etc.) to enhance that.
Most of the time these types of backgrounds are very busy, like my coral reef panel. In some landscape quilts designs, however, the more austere your background, the better your main image pops.
So
it all depends. There are no hard and fast
rules here.
Choosing the Right “Backwards Coming
Forwards” Color
As
crazy as this sounds, sometimes your background needs to be your
foreground. This mostly occurs in very
strikingly austere quilts such as silhouettes.
When
you make a silhouette, your foreground is one solid color – usually black. In order to make that pop, you need a very
striking background. We use this design
element in projects such as ‘Running Wild’ & ‘The Cowboy and His Lady.’
The sunset colors in the background are the focal point.
In my Camel Panel, I used a darker constellation fabric for my background, and even though the black silhouetted camels are in the foreground, it’s the night sky that you see first.
Once
again, lay out your fabrics, and try different combinations until you’re happy
with the look.
A
nice side-effect of this type of project is that it’s hard to go wrong. If you have an idea of what effect you want
to achieve, and your silhouette is easily recognizable (like a horse) then your
background will become stunning pretty easily.
Use the Background to Create
Movement in Landscape Quilt Designs
One
of the major differences between traditional quilting and fabric art is that
quilting creates a pattern, and fabric art creates a picture.
Since
we’re interested in the unique and creative, obviously we want our fabric art
to do more than just lay there looking impressive with all our point matching
exactly.
One of the ways fabric art mirrors reality is by creating movement.
This particular project is still under construction – eventually though these wide borders will be a “tidal pool and silver net” background for the central mermaid panel.
And
I’d say that approximately 59% of the movement in a quilt should come from the
background elements.
Since
we’re talking fabric art here, movement is achieved with fabric and the
patterns you put it into. Many quilting
patterns naturally mimic movement, and the limit to making them take flight is
only your imagination.
Landscape Quilt Designs that Create
Movement
A
few of my favorite patterns for creating movement in landscape quilting designs
are:
The pinwheel
Bargello
Zipper back
Strip piecing
And patchwork patterns.
These
patterns mimic movement in and of themselves, but when you purposefully design
the colors to create one effect, level to level, from the beginning, it really
enhances the effect.
My
best example of this is my Coral Reef panel.
If
you look closely at the background, you will see I used a pinwheel pattern. I
constructed 3 levels of these, starting with the darkest down against the sand,
then a medium level and lastly a very light level, to convey the impression of
moving upwards.
Next,
I used one or two of the same fabric in each level (note the lime green) to
help draw the eye back and forth.
And
even though your eyes may not consciously notice the background here because of
all of the stuff happening in the foreground of this panel, your brain notes it
and says “water”.
This
same technique works just as well for any project and any pattern. Bargello is all about using the same colors
in different layers, to draw the eye and create movement.
Pay attention to the fabrics you use in your designs. There are so many different ones out there with circles, swirls, dots, zigzags, starbursts, leaves, bubbles, etc. If you use these in your background patterns they will automatically create movement all by themselves and enhance your illusions exponentially!
As
with all fabric art, the creating is the glory, so let your inner genie loose
on your backgrounds first!
Wonder-Under
– or soft
paperbacked fusible webbing – is another one fabulous quilting
invention that have made quilting, and especially fabric art, much more do-able
and enjoyable. This is because
wonder-under products makes sewing appliques on quilts painlessly easy – and
appliqueing is one of the easiest ways to easily create a stunning quilt
project.
What Fusible Webbing Is – And Isn’t
Wonder-Under
is a paperbacked fusible web, very similar in most ways to traditional
interfacing, and it’s transformed the world of applique.
Try to think of Wonder-Under as specialty interfacing for applique projects. The two biggest differences are that (1 it’s sticky on both sides, and (2 you have to be more careful how you iron it on.
Get beautiful, lifelike results when you use appliques to spice up quilting projects.
When
you iron this stuff onto fabric, life becomes vastly easier.
It becomes much
easier to fussy cut your applique shapes out
It helps to
control a lot of the fraying around the edges of your shape once it is cut out
And as it is
ironed onto your larger fabric it’s very helpful in positioning without pins –
which cuts down on your home-style piercings!
Applique is perfect for creating mouth-watering autumn-themed centerpieces.
What Fusible Webbing Used to Be
When I first started quilting, this amazing product was in its birth pangs and I had some real disasters with it.
When
I first found it, back in the days when I wasn’t quilting but rather sewing
clothes for my kids, Wonder-Under was quite thick and once it was ironed onto
your fabric, the fabric itself became very stiff and unworkable. It was also almost impossible not to get some
of the sticky stuff on your iron, and the fusible web “un-glued” from the
fabric very quickly.
So
I left it alone for about 5 years.
Then
one day, I decided to try sewing appliques on quilts for my nieces. I simply couldn’t think of anything else, so
I reluctantly tried it, and found Wonder-Under was a very different animal from
the monster in my memories.
This was one of the first projects I used Wonder-Under on, and while it still wasn’t as good as it is today – you can see the result was smooth and professional.
It
had become thinner and much more flexible, for one thing. For another, the ironing process was much
simpler, and the sticky stuff was good for at least a couple of days.
In
the last few years it has improved even more, and now I buy it by the roll
because I use so much of it.
The Best of the Best Product for
Sewing Appliques on Quilts
Back
when I first started there was only one brand, which was Pellon
Wonder-Under. Being the single-minded
individual I am, that brand name has stuck, and they still do have a great
product. However, there are different
types of Wonder-Under and I have tried most of them.
This was recommended to me by one of the ladies from our local quilting store. It’s much thinner and flexible than the old Wonder-Under I was using, and it controls fraying better.
Soft
Fuse Premium comes in packages with a few sheets in it. It’s reasonably priced, and you can get a few
and decide if you like it or not.
Or, if you are a true applique lover, you can buy an entire roll – like what you’d find stocked on the shelf of a quilt store. Soft Fuse Premium is by far the most cost-effective brand for this type of bulk purchasing. If you plan on doing quite a bit of appliqueing, the rolls are definitely the better bargain, and if you purchase them online you will save even more.
How to Make Sewing Appliques on
Quilts Quick and Painless Using Princess YellowBelly’s System
Of course, being
me, I don’t follow the packaging instructions on how to apply my fusible
webbing – because I figured out my own way.
You will need; a square piece of material a little bigger than your applique shape, a square of fusible webbing about the same size, a larger piece(s) of wax paper, and an iron.
Soft Fuse is fusible on both sides with a paper backing on one side to keep that side from fusing while you’re fusing the first side.
Just remember not to touch your hot iron to the sticky side, or put the wrong side of the paper against your ironing board. If you miss on the iron you can use handy-dandy iron cleaner to get rid of the sticky stuff in just a few minutes, but if you do this to your ironing board cover you’ll need a new one since it will never come off.
I’m currently on ironing board cover number 3…
Step-By-Step Process for
Wonder-Undering Fabric Shapes
Cut a piece of Soft Fuse that fits the template(s) you
will be cutting
Lay the Soft Fuse paperbacked side down on your
ironing board
Cut a similarly sized piece of fabric, and lay it on
top of the Soft Fuse (the back or wrong side of your fabric should be against
the rough side of the Soft Fuse)
Lay wax paper over the entire project
Iron – this only takes a few seconds for cottons – but
it might take longer for heavier fabrics (and it won’t work at all on velvets
and fleece)
Pull the wax paper off – the excess sticky stuff will
come off on the wax paper and you can throw it away
Don’t peel off the paper backing
Pin your template onto the paper backing, remembering
that when you cut it out and turn it over, it will be facing the other
way. Make sure it’s facing the wrong way
when you cut it out. Keeping the paper
backing on while you cut really helps to stabilize the fabric.
Pin all small shapes like legs, noses, etc. with very
small pins, to help keep them in place as you cut
Once your shape is cut out, remove pins, peel away the
paper backing
Flip your shape over (so the white side with the
fusible webbing is against the top of your project) and position your fabric
applique shape where you want it
Iron down carefully (this can take up to five minutes)
Sew as you please (Soft Fuse Premium maintains the
stick reliably for up to a week, and it won’t shift at all as you’re sewing
appliques on quilts)
I also use Soft Fuse on my fabric flowers and leaves, but this is a slightly different process. I’ll be doing a whole article on quilting with silk fabric flowers and leaves, so keep looking!
For
quilters everywhere – but especially for fabric artists – free motion quilting
is the most fun you can have outside of bars & bed. In fact, as my amazing quilter friend Barb
often says, “Quilting keeps us off the streets and out of the bars,” in the
first place.
You
might be able to tell that free motion is my favorite part of the entire
quilting process.
I
can get positively tipsy on the entertaining, creative liberties of
freewheeling around loops, spirals, feathers, shapes, and those odd jigsaw
shapes only I understand. I guess this
is because it incorporates two of my favorite elements in fabric art; thread
and freedom.
Thread
is one of my guilty addictions, I positively adore it.
I
love the plethora of colors and the way they can enhance any project; the
colors…thicknesses…textures…variations…and possibilities.
The freedom comes with the free motion capabilities of my machine of course. And I do recommend that any creative quilter buy a machine that has a free motion quilting foot and put it to good use! But I also geek out over the opportunity to quilt whatever and wherever I choose. It’s extremely liberating!
“FREEDOM!!!”
It’s
also a little intimidating and overwhelming the first few times you try
it.
For
those of you who are used to being told exactly what to do and how to do it
every step of the quilting process, this is completely understandable. I used to do things this way, and I would
obsess about the final quilting process – especially when the pattern would
say, “quilt as desired.”
I
mean, what did THAT mean? Gradually,
though, I realized that I could quilt almost anything, and it would look great,
especially with the right thread choice.
As
I share my journey from timid, mouse-in-the-corner, follow-the-lines quilter to
a freewheeling genie, I hope you’ll get inspired to unleash your inner creative
tiger, and let loose in the colorful world of thread and free motion quilting.
Plastic Guidelines for Free Motion
Quilting
As I quickly learned
quilting styles like “quilt-in-the-ditch” will only take you so far. And while those are useful techniques that
certainly have their place in certain projects, you can do and be so much more
when you drop the feed dogs and spin your quilt through the machine.
Using Iron-out Pens
When I first started with
free motion quilting, I bought a lot of those plastic quilting guides that you
lay down over your project and trace over with an iron out pen.
This is great if your
project needs a specific pattern, but is very impractical when you’re doing a
large project as it takes a long time.
Ya’ll may remember my great capacity for patience…so, yeah. Moving on.
Using plastic guides also uses up your iron-out pens pretty quickly, and those puppies don’t come cheap!
This panel was quilted using iron-out pen to create a sun-ray guide – which works great for small projects.
Using ponce chalk
After this I tried the
ponce and chalk option. A ponce is
basically a small box with a sort of cheesecloth bottom. You fill the box with powdered quilting chalk
and bang it down over your plastic quilting guide until the chalk marks out
your quilting design.
I found out that while it certainly is faster,
it’s also a great deal messier, with chalk on everything, including up your nose and in your eyes.
The biggest trouble here
is that powdery chalk, by its very nature, rubs off, and you can only do
relatively small sections at a time.
Also, I discovered that some fabric is slippery (even cotton ones), and
the chalk just slides right off.
Also the pattern is much
clearer if you have extra hands hold the plastic guide down – and my kids had a
weird aversion to me banging the ponce down over their fingers. Go figure.
So now, if I have a
specific pattern I want, and the fabric is dark, I will use chalk, but I use my
chalk line drawing tool and I only do this if the overall project is
small.
This method made the star shapes on my ‘Camel Panel.’
Unavoidable Errors
I
also learned that the only real way to get a perfectly quilted design is to
have a long-arm, computerized quilting machine.
But since I don’t have $30,000 to spend on a machine that won’t fit in
my house anyway, I had to learn to live with human errors.
At
first these unavoidable jigs and jags would make me wince, but no one ever noticed them except me, and given
enough time, even I could barely find them.
So
I thought, “what the heck, why go to all this trouble if no one but me really
notices.”
Next, I bought a few free
motion quilting how-to books that teach you how to do this the “right”
way. And if you’re drawing challenged –
like my girls – these might really work for you. I can’t recommend any of them, however,
because that’s not how my mind works.
I also find it impossible
to make every shape the exact same size each and every time.
This is especially true when I quilt the feather shape – my feathers change size and shape with alarming regularity.
You can see the unevenness of this quilting design if you look for it – but it only adds the naturalistic style!
Natural Free Motion Quilting Styles
Finally, I found a teaching video by Judy Hansen entitled Free-Motion Quilting for Newbies, it’s an absolutely super teaching video.
What I liked most about it was that Judy gives you permission not only to experiment, but also to make what I used to call a mistake but she only considers variations in the pattern. As she says, “Nothing in nature matches, so don’t worry about your quilting patterns matching exactly.” What freedom!
This permission slip really started my creative juices flowing, and now I am fearless when I start quilting a new project.
No one will know you’re perfect –
even if you are
The thing you’ll notice
is that non-quilters will be so awed by your talent that they’ll never notice a
few wigs and wa-wa’s. More importantly,
when you stop trying to impress everyone with your perfection you’ll set your
soul free.
Amazingly enough, you’ll
also find that the brain sees what it expects to see. Your eye may be seeing one thing, but your
brain will present a completed image.
For example, if you’re
looking at a quilted piece your brain will show you a beautifully quilted
overall pattern, no matter the wa-wa’s.
You have to actually stop and look very carefully before your brain
picks up any ‘imperfections’.
Most people will not take
the time to do this, and you’re home free!
Listen to your quilt
This’ll sound weird to non-quilters, but if you listen to your quilt project every step of the way, it will tell you what pattern that it wants to be quilted with.
For instance, my ‘Winter Wonderland Panel’ wasn’t originally a fantasy landscape. I came to understand, however, that there were fairies hidden in the woods. They were shy, but definitely proud of their wings.
So, if you look closely, you will find 3 sets of fairy wings in my quilting.
In the mermaid quilt that
I’m currently sewing, I’m going to use a wave pattern, as the borders represent
the ocean. So look carefully at your
project and let it tell you what it needs to really shine.
Thread – Thread – Thread – And More
Thread
Think carefully before
you pick your quilting thread.
The color you choose will
make a great deal of difference to the finished look of your project. Here again, the quilt will let you know.
Sometimes you’ll want to highlight the design and not the quilting, and so you’ll need either invisible thread or a color that matches exactly. This is what I did with my mermaid panel. I wanted her to shine and the quilting to be almost invisible.
If the opposite is true,
and the quilt design isn’t such a much, pick thread that will really make your
quilting design pop right off your project.
I like to try my choices
out on a scrap of corresponding fabric first, to make sure that my thread color
and design are going to look like I think they will. Practicing on a fabric
scrap will also let you adjust your tension and motor speed. If something isn’t right, you won’t have to
pull it out.
Think of everything in the box
To aid in picking out the right thread, I go through all my thread boxes and pull out anything that I think might even remotely work.
If I can’t tell if the thread is right just by laying the spool on my project, I unwind about a foot of it and puddle it on my project. This makes it fairly easy to see what it will look like once you sew with it.
Don’t be afraid to try some really odd combinations – sometimes the weirdest thread/fabric combos are just what is needed.
A word about the importance of
bobbin thread in free motion quilting
Your bobbin thread is
important – and usually you’ll want it to just disappear into the backing of
your quilt. Sometimes, however, your
machine will drag the bobbin thread through to the front, just enough to
show.
If this happens, make sure that your bobbin thread disappears on the front even at the expense of the stitching showing on the back.
Before you load your bobbin into the bobbin case, I highly recommend that you first insert a magic bobbin washer. These are Teflon washers that feel like plastic. They go between your bobbin case and your bobbin, and fit any home sewing machine.
They’re made by a company called “Little Genie” and are absolutely magical in what they do for your quilting! If you’ve ever quilted a project and turned it over, just to discover a bunch of birds’ nests, you will know why you need this super little invention.
Such a simple thing, yet these little washers will eliminate 95% of all backlash tangles and birds’ nests on the underside of your quilts.
They come in a package of
12 and are very reasonably priced. Since
they’re made out of Teflon they don’t wear out – I’ve only ever purchased one
package and I’ve been using them for about 6 years.
The only trouble is that
if you’re not careful when you take your bobbin out of its case, these little
rascals will pop right out and fly away.
Good thing I have my kids
to crawl around on the floor to find them again!
Not All Quilts Are Quilted Equally
Once you know what
pattern you want to quilt and the top thread you’ll be using, give some thought
to different areas of your project.
You may want to free motion quilt around the shapes in the panel, and then stitch in the ditch around whatever quilting blocks you’ve used to enhance the panel – as was the case with my ‘Home Pastures’ quilt.
Some areas only need a
straight quilting stitch, no matter the pattern you’ll be sewing, but sometimes
a smaller area will be screaming for a fancy stitch. If your machine has this feature, don’t be
afraid to explore these. My Bernina has
about 70 fancy stitches and I use these a lot, but only in small areas.
A word of caution, each different stitch usually has a motor speed that optimizes the pattern. If you try sewing that particular stitch too fast or too slow, the pattern will be skewed.
Here I used free motion quilting to follow and enhance the shapes of the feathers.
On the peacock’s neck and body I used free motion quilting to emphasize the stained glass – while on the flowers I used the same free motion quilting to sew the centers down.
This used to frustrate me
horribly until I sat down one day with a lot of scrap fabric, and played with
each stitch and the motor speed till I found the optimal combination. I wrote it all down and Suzanna made me a
chart that I keep in my sewing feet box.
Now, all I have to do is
reference my chart and I’m good to go. I
would highly recommend you do the same for your machine – it saves a great deal
of time, frustration and thread!
Let’s Go Freewheeling with Free
Motion Quilting
Now
you’re finally ready to start!
Your quilt sandwich
ironed and crease free
Your machine is
loaded with your choice of thread
And you’ve set
your machine to the stitch you’ve chosen.
Now it’s time to put on
the clear plastic free motion quilting foot, drop the feed dogs, position your
quilt at your chosen starting point, and put the pedal to the metal.
Tips to Make Your Free Motion
Quilting Go Faster & Look Better
1. Don’t
trim your project before you quilt it.
Free motion quilting is
especially bad at warping a quilt sandwich in every direction. If you trim before you quilt you will have to
trim again when you’re done and you could lose important parts of your design.
2. Always start as close to the middle of your
project as possible.
This helps you to smooth out any excess fabric to the edges as you quilt and eliminates bunching. As you quilt, use your hands, wrists or even your elbows to hold your fabric taut. The tighter you can hold it, the smoother your finished project. Once you have the middle done, move out towards the edges, smoothing as you go.
3. Get rid of thread tails before you start
quilting.
When you arrive at your
starting point, drop your free motion quilting foot, hold onto your top thread
and run your needle through the quilt once to bring up the bobbin thread. Pull
this through to the front, backstitch a few stitches and then start
quilting.
This eliminates all those
pesky thread tails on the back that get tangled in your quilting and are a pain
to snip out later. I used to make the
kids do this job, till I learned this trick, and they almost kissed my feet
when I started this practice. Also
remember to backstitch when you arrive at the end of your stitching, and snip
off your thread as close as possible both front and back.
4. Don’t be too impatient to get all your
quilting done in one go.
I used to be. Take the time to stop and tie off when the pattern demands it and then start again somewhere else. It makes a real difference to the final look. It can also make a difference to the warping of a quilt – as you can drag the sandwich completely out of kilter if you quilt too heavily to one side or the other without balancing it out.
5. Don’t hesitate about changing your thread
colors.
If you don’t like the
effect of a thread on a differently colored section or the project demands
it. Different colors in different places
can make different design elements pop.
Sometimes you may want to use metallic threads in places like eyes (on
panel quilts) or match element colors, like on landscaping quilts with
distinctive skylines.
6. Consider quilting gloves.
I have tried wearing
those white quilting gloves that are supposed to help your hands grab the
fabric more securely – and they do. But,
(and there’s always a “but” isn’t there), they are a real pain when you need to
work with your thread. Being who I am,
this drives me crazy, always having to take them on and off so I stopped using
them. If this doesn’t bother you then use them by all means, because they do
help.
7. You can experiment with other quilting
helps
Safety pins, bicycle
clips, and more help some quilters – but remember that these will always have a
downside. How you quilt best will depend
upon your personality (patience level), how big your quilts are, and how easily
you find it to create patterns without a guide.
8. When you quilt always remember to use a
fast speed but slow hands.
There is a great temptation to swoop and dart and swirl around with your quilting because fee motion is so freeing. However, if you do this (and I did at first) your thread won’t be able to keep up, and there will be many places where your thread will jump large spaces, the quilting will be uneven, and you’ll be able to pull the entire line out with your fingers.
Here I used free motion quilting to trace the figures of the panel with gold thread – creating a 3D effect
So always remember, fast
needle and slow hands!
These
are all the tips I can think of right now.
There is nothing like laying out your project after you’ve quilted it
and being thrilled with how it’s turned out.
So be brave intrepid fabric explorers and let your inner quilter loose!
One of the hottest new trends in the quilting world, and the unique realm of fabric art in particular, are fabric panels for quilting. These gorgeous panels can feature anything a digital artist can come up with, from peacocks, to cabins, to double-exposure photography panels like the new rave forest animals collections.
Every time I enter a quilt store or open a quilt magazine there are more of these printed sewing panels available, and they are getting more beautiful and detailed all of the time.
The question is, of course, what do you do with a printed fabric panel?
Have fun with printed fabric panels – after all, how could you not?
As with all the best products in fabric art, there’s actually quite a few things you can do with fabric panels for quilting, and these ideas range in difficulty from great beginner projects to difficult creations suited for confident and experienced quilters.
1.
Add
Outer Borders Only – Beginner Level
Some panels are so
totally gorgeous on their own that to do anything except add a few borders to
finish off the edges would be a shame.
This was the case with my ‘Away in the Manger’ panel. It just speaks for itself. It was gorgeous just the way it came, but when I quilted it the figures literally popped and became very life-like.
Using fabric panels for quilted wall hangings is a great way to “wet your toes” in the quilting world. You’ll get practical experience in:
Layering a quilt sandwich
Quilting either a simple pattern or free-motion quilting
Straightening up a quilted edge
And binding a small, lightweight quilt
Also, if you’re
working up towards the intermediate end of a beginner’s skill level, you can
try adding simple pieced borders instead of just strip borders. You’ll get practice in piecing and measuring,
without a ton of extra work.
Adding borders and
binding to a printed fabric panel is also a great project for quilters who are
too busy for a larger project – or who don’t want to pull a full-sized quilt
through a home sewing machine.
So, if you love a panel just the way it is, add one or two borders, quilt & bind it, and let it shine on your wall.
You can also add
to a panel by using “sparkly” accessories:
2.
Use Printed
Fabric Panels for Quilted Table Runners – Beginner
Level
Another option is
not to add any borders at all.
Simply add batting
and backing, quilt as desired, and finishing with a narrow binding.
Since most printed panels are 22”x44” this makes for a wide runner, but it works fine on a larger table. This can be a good choice for seasonal panels.
Both of these are examples of printed fabric panels for quilting just before they enter the quilting process. The ‘Northern Lights Christmas Tree’ will become either a large wall hanging, or a twin quilt, and the ‘Mermaid’ was designed from the beginning to be used in a twin quilt for a little girl.
Or, you can use smaller printed photo panels to make up the larger squares in traditional table runner patterns. One of our more recent projects – the Strawberry Farm-to-Table Runner – uses this technique:
3.
Think
of Printed Fabric Panels Like a Blank Canvas – Intermediate Level
A lot of panels come with a border of images that are already in the main panel. For instance, my ‘Glory of the Harvest’ panel came with a border of printed pumpkins, corncobs, maple leaves, etc.
I cut off this border…
Fused the shapes with wunder-under…
Fussy cut them…
And then appliqued them onto the main panel…
I also found
‘corn-on-the-cob” fabric in the Halloween section and did the same, and then
added a lot of autumn themed fabric leaves.
Then I quilted the entire panel with metallic bronze thread.
The finished piece
was not only prettier, it was also fuller and more 3-Dimensional.
Although I was
primarily drawn to the image of the white horse the outside border included an
extra red ribbon, holly leaves, etc. I
liked the look, but felt that leaving it that way would look childish, rather
than the magical landscape I saw in my head.
So I added a unicorns’ horn to the horse, placed the extra red ribbon around its neck, and added fairies and holly leaves everywhere. I really loved the finished panel.
You can always add
borders to the outsides of panels like this, or even sew them into quilts,
depending upon the level of your personal skill and (more importantly)
ambition. When you begin adding more
images into a printed fabric panel, you’ll learn how to:
Visualize a final
result without seeing anything concrete in the immediate
Understand sizing
and depth – don’t be too surprised if your first panels look just a little too
fantastical, at least to your critical eye.
With practice you’ll intuitively understand size and distance
relationships.
Fussy cut and
applique unique shapes into unexpected places
And don’t just
limit yourself to the shapes that come with some fabric panels for quilting.
Accessorizing a
“blank canvas” can also include buttons, lace, rick-rack, and even permanent
marker. So look carefully at every panel
and see if there’s anything you can add to enhance the overall image you’re
going for.
4.
Fracture
Them – Intermediate Level
Fracturing is a
time-consuming and meticulous piecing project, but it’s also a lot of fun.
Despite my general
aversion to anything that smacks of a “precisionist” quilting style, I have
done quite a few fractures, and continue to plan new projects. I think it has something to do with the
abstracted result.
You’ll need 4
exactly identical images to begin with and it’s best not to use images that
have discernable eyes – such as in human and animal faces.
Natural images are
perfect for fracturing:
Flowers
Bridges
Landscapes
Cars
And suchlike
My ‘Poppy Water’ panel was my first fractured panel, and I would definitely recommend starting with something really simple like this.
Fracturing
blurs out precise details and makes the image appear staggered and
rippled. It’s time consuming but well
worth the effort. Fractures are great
for learning how to:
Sew in measured
lines (you’ll have to sew an exact ¼ inch seam)
Keep track of
small, abstracted strips of fabric
Follow a simple
sewing pattern
Rip seams – this
part’s annoying, but fractures are one of those projects where you have to be
ready with the seam ripper and a grin, because odds are you’ll mix up at least
one strip set
I’m going to write a blog and do a video on fracturing soon, so keep posted. In the meantime, you can check out the book that taught us how to do it.
Sometimes there’s
one or two images in a panel that really draw your eye, but you’re not thrilled
with the background, or one of the extra images.
There’s nothing to
stop you from fussy cutting out the images you like and constructing a new
background altogether. I did this with
both my ‘Peacock Panel’ and my ‘Wynter Carolers.’
6.
Fabric
Panels for Quilting are…for Quilting! So
Incorporate Them Into Quilts – Advanced
As I said before,
many printed sewing panels are gorgeous and very life-like and much too
beautiful to change in any way.
So don’t change
them, let them shine in a quilt instead.
There are panels for every age group and any taste – whatever floats your boat. Last year I had a lady commission me to make a horse quilt for her horse-crazy son. She wanted it to be a queen and that’s a lot of area to cover.
I decided to do it
with 3 regular sized panels (these are 22”x44”) and 6 smaller panels.
I incorporated
colors from the panels into my borders and the result was my ‘Home Pastures’
quilt, which I think is beautiful.
It’s also totally
unique – I know there’s not another one out there just like it.
I’m also currently
working on a mermaid quilt that will be perfect for a young girl. Once again it was the gorgeous panel that I
couldn’t resist so I bought it and then I had to think about what to do with
it. I’m pretty sure any young girl will
be thrilled with the result, and once again, it’s a completely unique creation!
This is a pretty advanced technique, however.
You have to be
able to:
Quilt
Straighten a
quilted panel (and I do mean straight!)
Create your own
quilting pattern – for Home Pastures I used a pinwheel design, but I had to
resize each set of blocks and the strip borders as well, plus figure out the
sashing lengths…
Sash a quilt –
this is a great technique, but it can be a little frustrating
Coordinate colors
– not always as easy as it sounds
Quilt
Be ready to get
the seam ripper and the measuring tape and start over again
Quilt some more
Granted, a smaller quilt is less to figure out – but it still requires a thorough understanding of many different quilting and sewing techniques and styles to pull off.
I definitely don’t
recommend this type of project for a beginner, but it might be a good way for
an intermediate level quilter to begin testing her wings, so to speak.
More than Six?
These are just a
few of the ways I’ve sewn with panels in the past. And I’m sure that there’re many other ways to
use printed fabric panels for quilting, and I’m sure you’ll think of them.
Please, if you
find a panel you just can’t resist, let your imagination go and your creative
juices flow!
There’s no right or wrong way to sew with these great additions to the quilting world. Simply feel free to create!
Suzanna Fitzgerald is our January-March 2019 Seam Ripper Champion for her sadly hilarious tale of a simple crochet project gone wrong – or possibly horribly right. We’re not sure, so let us know what you think in the comments below.
It was just a simple crochet project…Gone Wrong!
My sister Leiajoy had always had a thing for ponchos, and since her birthday was in the fall I thought: “Hey! I’ll crochet her a poncho in the evenings out of really bright variegated yarn and she’ll have something fun and practical to fit her personality.”
Yeah, right.
Or maybe I’m not as good at crocheting and pattern-reading as I would like to believe. Hmm…
Suzanna Fitzgerald writes for a living, but she also enjoys crafts, like quilt designing and crocheting, as her hobbies. Suzanna helps to run Princess YellowBelly Designs with her family. When she’s not in front of the computer she can most often be found behind a camera, or driving down her beloved Colorado highways.
I found some yarn I had been saving for a special occasion. The specific yarn is from Red Heart, 100% acrylic, color “Black Light.” It’s a really brilliant yarn in neon shades of orange, green, yellow, pink, dark blue, and black. Just right to be woven into a complicated-looking pattern.
Sometimes fabric art projects don’t go as planned…
Third Step – Making Sure (Measuring
Twice)
I
practiced the various stitches in front of the computer until I had them, then
I wrote down the pattern in crochet shorthand (pattern formula) and proceeded
to stitch away.
This Is Where Reality Stepped In
I
had envisioned sitting in front of the TV of an evening, keeping my hands busy
with a crochet hook and string of yarn, enjoying myself royally on a unique
project. Hah!
Instead,
after about a week, I realized that I had made a horrible mistake.
Step Four – Tear it Apart and Start
Again
I
proceeded to pull the anchoring stitches, about three thick, tight lines which
would become the shoulder band.
Having
successfully decimated hours of work, I went back to the tutorial. This time I watched my internet teacher each
step of the way – which still looked totally easy when she did it – as I
re-measured, and carefully, carefully,
re-stitched the shoulder band.
Step Five – Are We There Yet?
I set the shoulder band on my sister’s shoulders.
Hurrah and Huzzah! It fit like a dream, it looked like something that could have come out of the Hippie Gucci line (if Gucci made Hippie garments).
Step Six – The Largest Part
Wildly
pleased, I proceeded to stitch the body of the poncho.
Step Seven – Complete and Utter
Confusion
This
moment can best be described by one word repeated frequently and at various
volumes; “huh?”
I
looked, I peered, and I measured. I
re-measured. I pulled out four lines of
hard-fought progress, and proceeded, once again watching my tutorial step-by-step.
It
didn’t matter.
While
my touched-by-crafting-angels-internet-teacher blithely showed row after row of
smoothly draping poncho, my crochet project gone wrong hung in heavy, wrinkled
folds. Obviously I had too many stitches
in each row for the design – but how?
*I actually came up
with a really great trick for keeping tracks of rows when working in the round
– read all the way to the bottom to see it!
Step Eight – Help!
Admitting defeat, I went to my wise and artsy mother who had taught both me and her own mother to crochet (at different times) and asked her what she thought.
Together
we went through the pattern, my style of crocheting, my tension, and the
instructional video twice over.
Finally we determined that – for whatever reason – the original pattern was too loose. We weren’t sure why; if it was the yarn, the size of my crochet hook, my inability to count properly, or what.
Step Nine – Redesigning the Pattern
Together
we worked the rounds of crocheting to be tighter, cutting multiple stitches out
of the early rounds and severely diminishing the exponential increase of each
succeeding row.
Step Ten – Finally!
My
crochet project hung nicely, slowly expanding out from the shoulder band like
it was supposed to.
It
was bright, it was easy, it was beautiful.
I finally had my pattern memorized, and I worked down roughly fifteen
rows (which was a lot of yarn!)
Step Eleven – Trying it on
My
patient sister tugged the half-finished design over her head, eager to see how
much more I had to do.
We
stood and stared, stunned and disbelieving.
Everything
look perfect – it really did.
Except! Our custom alterations to
the pattern had not only taken out those unsightly folds, it had tightened the
entire design.
The
project had not only taken a hard right turn from my hopes, the body of the
poncho was now so tight that she could not move her arms, at all.
Step Twelve – Scream Loudly
This
was rather a splendid scream, as the three of us – a loving mother and her two
daughters – shared the frustration equally by that point.
Step Thirteen – Accepting Fate
I’d
love to be able to say that I persevered until I got the poncho that I
originally wanted, and that it was beautiful, and my sister loved it, and that
I learned something valuable.
Well,
I did learn something valuable, but the rest of it…not so much.
Instead,
after the screaming died down, my sister discovered that she could very easily
pull the poncho down her arms, and that it fit at her natural waistline.
We
sat and stared, in a good way for the first time through the course of the
project.
Slowly, it dawned on us that the shape our so-called poncho had taken was very similar to an A-frame skirt (which happens to be a very appealing style for my sister’s body shape).
The Continuing Saga of the Amazing
Mutating Skirt
My
crochet project gone wrong mutated from a poncho into a skirt. But!
My project wasn’t done giving me fits.
I
finished the crocheting, and my mother sewed in a black cotton underskirt for
modesty and comfort. My sister wore it
as part of a crayon costume at summer camp, and a few years later she proudly
wore it to a business conference.
That skirt has seen a lot of miles, in more ways than one. It is, after all, the amazing mutating skirt.
The skirt has kept growing!
Even
after we sewed the sides to the side seams of the cotton underskirt it kept
growing. Now, every two years or so, I
pull out about a half a ball of yarn, shortening the skirt back to just above
her ankles.
I don’t know where all the extra yarn is coming from, because the skirt doesn’t look stretched, or thin, or anything that would indicated the whys and wherefores of all that extra yarn.
So there it is for you – the saga of a crochet project gone wrong, which turned a poncho into an amazing mutating skirt!
I did learn some things about crocheting, though.
Maybe my crochet project gone wrong wasn’t such a disaster after all. Here’s Leiajoy wearing the amazing mutating skirt at the beach, moments before walking into our yearly business conference!
Tips:
When working on a
round pattern use a safety pin to mark the beginning of the last row. That way you instantly know when to switch
stitches.
Make sure to do
the foundation rows (in this case the waistband) when your total concentration
is on it. Don’t begin crocheting in
front of the TV until you are on the simple, repeating part of the pattern.
Try to match your
tension with the original pattern as much as possible.
Be ready to change
your plan. Crochet can be a bit
unpredictable. An afghan that you sized
for a twin may grow into a queen or even a king. Or a garment may become something totally
different. Being ready to adapt can save
you a lot of frustration and time spent pulling those hard-won stitches.
After finishing a
project, go in and put a drop of fabric glue into each knot where you tied in a
new skein of yarn (either for continuing or for changing colors). This will help to preserve your beautiful
creation in the long run!
Final Thoughts
Remember to have fun with your crochet projects. You will run into snags, but you’ll learn something from them, every time. And, with a little faith and perseverance, you may create something even more beautiful, and useful, out of your mistakes than you could have imagined!
You Could Be Our Next Champion
Suzanna had a lot of fun – and gave us a lot of laughs – and we’re going to enjoy having her as our champion for the next three months.
BUT! 3 months goes by awfully fast, and we’re already looking for our next Seam Ripper Champion. Will our next Master of Disaster be you? We hope so.
Quilting
Foam is the most amazing
invention to come along in ages! With
this one amazing product in your back pocket you can learn how to make your
quilts burst and pop with 3-Dimensional effects and deep texture you can’t find
in ordinary quilts.
It
can be used:
As a stabilizer in
bags
To create the same
effect as trapunto quilting
Or simply as a
super stabilizer instead of interfacing
Quilting Foam Makes Your Quilts Burst and Pop with Effect
The
only real difference is personal preference because both are the same thickness
and perform the same way.
I
mostly use the Bosal-N-R Foam because one side has a slightly adhesive surface
that will adhere to your fabric when you iron your fabric onto the foam. It only holds for a little while, though, so
I always pin the two together if I’m not going to be sewing it within 24 hours.
The second reason I use this brand of foam is because Suzanna can find it on Amazon for a significantly reduced price.
Having
experimented with foam in several different projects, I will now give you my
vast store of wisdom on this subject.
Trapunto Quilting Replacement
Trapunto is an Italian word that means: “popping up certain parts of a quilting design, to make it stand out from the rest of the pattern.” (It’s shorter in Italian…)
I
am really attracted to this look in a quilt.
It’s
done by placing a double layer of batting behind your project, quilting it all,
and then cutting away the second layer of batting from everything but the designs
you want to emphasize.
To
me, this is a great waste of batting and worse, incredibly tedious.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’m not the most patient person in the world, and I have absolutely none for needless busy work.
We tried the trapunto technique on our “Fairies in my Garden” panel because we wanted to see if it was worth it. I did the quilting and Suzanna did the trimming – actually I made her. She has a vastly greater tolerance for busy work than I do, but even she concluded that the result wasn’t worth the time, and this was only a panel, NOT an entire quilt top!
So we looked around for other ways to achieve the same effect without the busy work.
Experimental Alternatives to Foam
First
we would put batting just behind the designs we wanted to pop out, trim them,
and then quilt a 2nd layer of batting behind the entire design.
This worked well as long as we didn’t quilt the background design too lightly. We found that the heavier we quilted the background, and the more lightly we quilted our pop ups, the more obvious the difference between the 2 and therefore more visually appealing.
But
it still wasn’t a big enough difference to suit me.
After
that, I tried quilting the entire panel, and then adding elements that I wanted
to emphasize after. Basically I would
cut out a piece of batting with the applique, then put them on together.
I did this on our Winter Wonderland Panel, when I added the trees after I had added batting to each “tree” separately, and then quilting the trees to the panel. This was pleasing, but a lot of extra work, so I looked around for another idea.
That’s when I found foam. What a revelation!
How to Make Sewing With Foam Easier
Foam
is approximately 1/8” thick and loves to be sewn. It pretty much stays where you put it, and
has a marvelous popup affect.
Don’t use it for very small designs
It’s a waste of foam because the popup effect is lost in the quilting process. I found this out with my “Cowboy and His Lady panel”. I put foam behind the cowboy, his lady, his dog, and the windmill. It worked just fine on the first 3 figures, but because the windmill blades were much smaller, and the satin stitching around the edges almost touched in the middle of each blade, the popup effect was entirely lost. So, don’t waste time or foam putting it behind very small designs.
Cut Your Fabric ¼ inch wider than
your foam shapes
When I first began using foam, I would cut the shapes right out of the foam, place the matching fabrics on top, and then satin stitch around the edges. This is how my “Lily Pad Table Topper” was constructed. As you can see, it works great for larger designs, but I’ve figured out a trick to this too.
When
you satin stitch around these foam/fabric pieces, you have to use a very wide
satin stitch in order to cover the edges because the foam is so thick. To get around this, I’ve started cutting my
fabric ¼” wider than the foam. This way,
when you layer the foam and fabric, the fabric lays down over and covers the
edge of the foam and then it only takes a narrow satin stitch to finish the edge.
This is the technique I used around the edge of the moon in my “Night Guardian” panel.
Know when to make your own templates
When I’m putting foam only behind certain design elements in an already printed panel, there is no way to sew it on the top as in my moon, or camels, etc. Instead, I trace out the designs I want to pop (I make my own template), and then I use this template to cut out the foam. Then I layer the foam behind the design feature, and quilt – not too heavily. When I have it the way I like it, I trim away the excess slivers from the foam.
This is how I did the mermaid and the large starfish in my still-under-construction-mermaid quilt. This works great for panels, and other images that are already printed.
Foam is also a great stabilizer for
any sort of bag you want to sew
Quilting foam helps the bag to hold its shape, and gives your project a lot of added strength. I have found that in this application, the heavier you quilt here, the more your bag will hold its shape and stand upright.
A word of caution about foaming a
bag
I found that out
because the foam is so thick it quickly makes seams too thick to sew. I almost went insane trying to get my first
media bag through my machine, even using my jeans needles, and I broke A
LOT!
The 2nd
bag I made sure to cut the foam ½” narrower that the fabric with much better
results.
Now I Can Pop “That” Up – and “That”
Can be Anything At All
Be sure to experiment, and enjoy working with this great product. I’m sure some of you will come up with some more creative ways to incorporate it into your projects – it really is worth it.
If you come up with an absolutely amazing way to make your quilts burst and pop, or if you discover something new about using foam, please contact us and let us know what you did and how you did it. Pictures are great to!
Most of us think
of our quilt backings as necessary – after all, a quilt is a fabric sandwich –
but boring in a sort of: “ho-hum, who
will ever look at this” way.
This is an understandable attitude, and, as only a few people will look at your backing, it’s also a truism…up to a point.
But just because most of the initial WOW factor is on the front doesn’t make your quilt backings any less important. And there is one very important class of people who who will look at them – other quilters of course!
The first thing another enthusiast does is to flip your project over and look at the back. This same principle applies to other crafts, like embroidery, as well.
We do this because only by looking at the “hidden” side can we really know how much work went into a project. Quilt backings tell us other things, as well, like the skill level of the quilter, the value of the quilt, and even if the quilt is a viable winner in a quilt show.
Why Your Quilt Backings are Just as Important as Your Fronts
Creating a Firm Foundation
Think of your
backing as the foundation of your quilt.
While it is mostly out of site, it is vitally important to the each
quilt’s overall appearance, strength, and durability.
Square Footage
Despite
its apparently subtle role in the appearance of a quilt, the backing is
actually the single largest area of any quilt.
This
appears to be a no-brainer but it would surprise you to know that to a vast
majority of quilters, the backing is an afterthought. Our miserly or lazy justifications go
something like; “since it’s only covering
the back and no one’s going to look at it, any old thing will do.”
WRONG!
Not only is your quilt backing the largest in terms of square footage and coverage, it also will take the brunt of wear and tear during the lifetime of your quilt.
Strength & Durability
While
your beautiful quilt top is exposed only to the air, and is usually protected
from people and pets, the quilt’s backing will rub up against anything and
everything. If your quilt backing starts
to wear or develop holes, it means you have to patch creatively – which is
painfully time consuming – or your quilt may eventually be destroyed.
Also,
your quilts are works of individual, unique, and powerful art. You want your quilts to last as long as
possible, even long enough to be handed down to future generations.
For
these reasons the quality of the fabric for your quilt backing needs to be carefully
considered.
This means
durability and that comes from the strength of your fabric.
I used to buy much
of my fabric at Walmart (when they still had a large fabric selection), and I
was always pleased with how much less they cost than the fabrics at the quilt
store. However, as I sewed and quilted
with these fabrics, I began to notice some serious downsides:
How quickly these cheap backing fabrics faded…
A tendency to wear holes through areas that were frequently handled…
Frayed through seams…
And generally just did not wear well at all!
That got me to
thinking about the quality of my fabric versus all the work that goes into a
quilt, and I came to a surprise conclusion.
I was wasting both
my time and my money by trying to quilt on the cheap.
Pricing
Not that anyone
from Princess YellowBelly Designs – and least of all thrifty me – would
recommend spending exorbitant instore prices for anything, especially backing.
Shopping around
and getting the best deals possible just makes good sense, but compromising on
the quality of your fabric is not.
One of my earliest
– and most embarrassing gaffes – was in trying to use a brand new, flat cotton
bed sheet as a backing! Most sheets are
14 count cotton thread, and you all know how quickly they wear out when in constant
use. Sheets are made for beds and are
not woven tightly enough for long lasting durability.
Do NOT use them on
the backs of your quilts!!
How to Choose the Right Fabrics for
Your Quilt Backing
Despite the epic
failure of my bed sheet quilt backing, it turns out that some of the reasons I
had for trying it were actually viable:
Bed sheets are big
I didn’t have to piece my backings, which is a pain
I didn’t have to hand sew the back seams of a king quilt, which is a real pain!
Well, the quilting world caught on to the reluctance of quilters to piece their quilt backings and they came up with a solution – backing fabric.
Ta-da!
Quilt
backing fabric comes at 108” wide, which is wide enough to cover a queen sized
quilt.
The
quality of these fabrics are top notch, which means they have great durability
and strength, and there are a plethora of colors and design options out
there.
And
every time I open a quilt magazine, there are new colors available. At first they only came in boring neutrals
but now these lovely, time-saving fabrics pretty much cover the color
spectrum.
The
cost is an average of $14.00/yd. which seems quite expensive at first, but when
you do the math, it’s usually cheaper to go this way rather than buying the
regular 45” wide fabric and going to the trouble of piecing it.
For
example:
1
queen quilt is approximately 90”x100”.
So with fabric that’s 108” wide, you’ll need roughly 3 yards. At $14/yd. that’s $42.00. If you purchase
regular 45” wide fabric you will need at least 6 yards. At $11/yd. this will cost you $66.00
and you still have to piece it.
Backing Motivations
This
may sound weird, but bear with me here and you’ll see what I mean. When it comes to backing, I think there are 2
schools of thought. Both sides of the
coin can be right, depending upon the particular project, so it’s worth putting
some thought into your quilt backing needs before laying out any cash.
1.
Functional
Quilt Backings
If
you want a purely functional backing that more or less disappears in relation
to the beauty of the front of the quilt, I recommend purchasing a mottled
fabric.
It
really doesn’t matter what color you choose or how bright that color is, the
important part is the pattern. The more
mottled or busy a pattern is, the more the quilting vanishes. This is useful if the pattern you’re quilting
isn’t your focal point, or if it doesn’t make sense in abstract – such as
outlining solid shapes in the front of the quilt.
Mottled
quilt backs also helps to hide all those little mistakes that we’re not
admitting we make. I do this a lot. It’s
the quickest way to getting your backing knocked in the head.
Also,
use a matching thread in your bobbin and the quilting will disappear even more.
2.
Statement
Quilt Backings
Sometimes,
though, I take me a notion and decide that the backing has to say
something.
For example, in my Home Pastures quilt – which features horses – I decided the backing needed to look like pastures too. So I used a fabric that was covered with horses in a field, and I “fenced the pastures” by using a strongly contrasting color during the sashing stage.
It was extremely creative if I do say so myself, and it made for a visually effective backing. The best part, of course, was that the pattern of the horses completely draws the eyes, and no one (not even me unless I’m looking very hard) can see the quilting!
If
your quilting pattern is one of the focal points of your quilt, then you’ll
want to choose a backing fabric with little to no pattern.
You
can also use a highly contrasting thread in your bobbin, and voila!
Your
backing is now visually appealing.
Disposing of Odds & Ends
If you don’t mind
piecing, backings are a great place to get rid of – oops – I mean to say incorporate scraps from your stash. You can sew these pieces together in a
recognizable pattern or just sew them any which way for a scrappy backing. It all works.
I will also often
use the leftovers of a fabric from the front of a project to start off a
scrappy backing.
This helps to pull
the entire project together visually, especially on smaller projects like wall
hangings and table runners, and makes aesthetic sense to everyone.
A Word about Black
I use black fabric quite often for my backings, especially on my silhouette panels, or when I really want to make a dramatic statement – like on my dragon quilt. Black is wonderful because it can either highlight your quilting pattern if you use a contrasting thread, or vanish all your quilting, if you use black thread.
But beware! It’s very hard to see what you’re
doing!!!
Michael rigged me
an extra LED light that I can use when I’m quilting on black for this very
reason. It’s mega frustrating – at least
for me – but also well worth the trouble.
Getting Your Backing Flat
Getting your
backing to lay flat and smooth as you quilt is essential, but unless you have a
long-arm quilting machine with rollers to hook your project into, you’ll have
to do it the old fashioned way.
Ingenuity.
I tried all of
those quilting “helps” that are supposed to help you hold your project tightly
and they now live in the back of a closet somewhere. I’ll review them eventually…
After a lot of
frustration and wasted money, I finally came up with a fairly simple method
that works well for me. Here it is:
DO NOT trim the
top of your project before layering it for quilting
The quilting itself will distort the edges somewhat and you will need to trim again after your project is quilted. If you trim beforehand as well, you will end up cutting off a good sized edge along the outside of your quilt. I once lost an entire border this way.
Always cut your backing piece and your batting at least 3” wider all the way around
This
is because the quilting process distorts your project slightly. I for one have
been known to quilt myself right off the edge.
Those extra inches give you vital wiggle room.
Spray starch and
iron on the wrong side of your backing.
Occasionally
spray starch will leave behind a weird shiny residue. It’s almost impossible to get this off
without washing the fabric.
Buy a cheap, thin
shower curtain from your local Dollar store.
Basting
spray, by its very nature, is sticky – very sticky. It will stick to anything in the vicinity,
including whatever surface you’re working on and from experience I know that it
is incredibly difficult to remove.
Laying
your new shower curtain down on your working surface before you layer and spray
your project will give you a no-muss-no-fuss clean up. These shower curtains can be used over and
over again. Get one!
Layer your
project, starting with the backing, wrong-side-up, and spray it with basting
spray.
Layer your batting
on top of that.
Smooth this out as
much as possible.
Note: It really
helps if you can get another person to help you hold the batting tight as you
lay it down.
Spray the top of
your batting with basting spray and lay the front of your project down on it
right-side-up.
Get
the top as smooth as possible by pulling and pressing smoothly. Once again, another pair of hands will really
help to keep your panel smooth.
Once the top is as
smooth and wrinkle-free as possible, flip your project over to the back.
Your
backing will now look like elephant skin…but here is how you fix this.
Determine the middle of your backing and gently pull
up the backing from the batting.
The
basting spray allows you to reposition fabric numerous times without having to
re-spray. Have someone press down firmly
on the mid-point while you pull your backing straight and lay it down
again. Smooth out.
Repeat as needed.
When your backing is as smooth as possible, iron it with
a hot iron.
This
adheres the basting spray tightly enough to hold your fabric in place without
pins. Usually. Occasionally I do use a handful of safety
pins to help hold a very large or very heavy quilt sandwich in place during
quilting.
Sometimes
I have to work in sections if my project is very large, and sometimes I have to
lift up, re-spray, and iron again before my backing will behave. But it’s well worth the effort! You end up with a smooth backing and no
pins!!
When your backing is as smooth as you can make it,
flip your project and repeat for the front.
I
always do the front last because that’s the one people mostly look at. Once you have your entire quilt sandwich
smooth and ironed, it will hold that way for about one week, before the basting
spray starts losing some of its moxy.
Don’t forget to finish your quilt backing with a name tag!
If
you think it will take you longer than this to quilt your project, I would put
in a few strategic pins to help encourage it to stay smooth and flat. Pins, used sparingly, are also a good idea if
your project is the size of a twin quilt or larger.
Once your project is ready for quilting, start as
close to the center as possible.
Using your hands, fingers, wrists and elbows, pull gently on your fabric as you work your way to the outside. I have found that with this method, I get a completely smooth front and back about 75% of the time. When I don’t the pleats are almost always on the backing and is never more than a small wrinkle or bubble that is almost impossible to see due to our disappearing tricks.
Since I started
using all these tips and tricks that I’ve outlined above, my projects became a
lot more doable, easier to handle, visually more appealing, and a lot more
rewarding. I really started enjoying the
entire process a great deal but beware – the more you enjoy it, the more
addicted you’ll become!
Here’s to your
future smooth-quilt-backing success.
Remember the moment when you first put a sun-warmed, summer-ripe strawberry in your mouth and bit down?
Wasn’t that a moment of perfect happiness?
A moment when the five senses came together to evoke the warmest emotions, the best memories, and the greatest sense of well-being that you’ve ever had?
Imagine, all of that because of a bite-sized piece of fruit.
That amazing sense of pure joy was the inspiration for Princess YellowBelly’s small quilt project – based on a Bargello design – the Summer Ripe Strawberry.
Year-Round Joy
The Summer Ripe Strawberry is one perfectly ripe strawberry that you can keep on your table, or hang on your wall, all year round.
It’s a small, thin, lightweight quilt that will help you to reclaim the unbridled joy of delicious memories all year round, even in the frozen winter months when actual strawberries aren’t readily available.
If you love summer ripened strawberries in your diet, in pictures, or in theory, then this is the quilt for you!
Take a Summer Ripe Strawberry to the Farmers Market
If you’re a strawberry farmer, or if you have a jam stand at your local farmers market, then the Summer Ripe Strawberry may be just the advertising gimmick you’ve been missing.
Imagine being able to tack this beautiful, layered Bargello mini-quilt to the front of your table.
All the rich, deep reds of a strawberry, combined with old-fashioned homey charm, in one perfect little quilt that can draw the eye to your items.
Your Own Interpretation
Those were our inspirations and motivations for making the Summer Ripe Strawberry mini-quilt. Please let us know what you think about it!
Would you like to see more projects like this one? What other ideas would you like to see the team at Princess YellowBelly create? We love to hear from you!
Measures exactly 14 inches wide X 14 inches high (at the widest points)
Predominant colors are rich blends of ripe reds varying from dusky roses to brilliant crimsons to dark maroons
Secondary color is summer green on the leaves and little seed pips
Summer Ripe Strawberry is a single shaped table topper designed to represent a strawberry in full ripeness
Backed with black batik fabric
Summer Strawberry is tagged or named
Weighs very little
Folds into a surprisingly small and flat package
Is a vividly realistic custom table topper
Summer Strawberry was created using the finest materials available, including quilting batiks, thin warm and natural cotton batting, high-quality cotton thread, and satin hot-fix ribbon.
Care & Cleaning
Summer Strawberry is an easy-care piece.
Recommended care and upkeep with a lint brush
Machine wash (cool, delicate cycle with a gentle detergent) if needed
Can be tumble-dried, although air-dry is recommended
May be cool-ironed (cotton settings) to remove packing wrinkles. Safe to iron with water or spray-starch
Display Options
Summer Strawberry was designed as a table topper for a small table or to complement a larger table’s centerpiece.
However it can also be used as a banner or as wall art.
We use regular household thumbtacks to secure our fabric art panels for display. They hold the panel tight and fabric is self-healing, once the tacks are removed the holes will close up again.
If you would like to discuss customized options, please contact us directly!
Custom Orders
Do you like this original fruity table topper?
What are your feelings about the shaped design and realistic recreation?
Would you like to see more fruit done in this style or would you prefer to see a similar design on a standard table runner?
Did we properly capture the beauty and sweet spice of a ripe summer strawberry?
We’d love to hear all about it. You can contact us via the contact form at the bottom with comments, or request a custom order, or just suggest a new idea. We reply to all questions and contacts.
Layaway
Sometimes the prices on our artwork can seem a little out-of-reach, which we understand! We try to charge very reasonable fees, but if you really would like to own Summer Ripe Strawberry, but don’t think you can afford it in one go, please contact us via the form at the bottom and request a custom layaway program.
It wasn’t the first time I’d been there but I sincerely hope it will be the last…and I wasn’t there to get a tattoo either. I’m a good girl, I am!
I went to the piercing parlor to get a Daith piercing in my ear to try to help my migraines. I confess to yelling when he pushed that needle through my cartilage – that sucker hurt.
However, as I sat there quietly bleeding, it occurred to me. I do this to myself all the time – when I sew – and I bet you do too.
Sewing is a physically risky business because essentially we’re working with knives. Of course, we like to give them euphemisms like scissors, pins & needles, and rotary cutters, but any seamstress can tell you…they’re really knives.
Personally, I’d be amazed to hear that there is one seamstress out there that hasn’t had a too close encounter with the sharp end of one of these supplies. They are necessary to our work, but they can be very painful.
Addiction – And How Not to Treat It
Here again is where the whole idea of addiction can raise its head.
When I was sewing my Peacock Panel, I had to pin every flower in place before I could sew – no handy Wonder Under here.
I used long, sharp quilting pins to secure those slippery leaves to the thick background. Those very helpful pins found no problem scraping along my forearms and jabbing into my chest as I sewed.
I’m pretty sure I yelled more than once, and when I was done, I did look like an addict with needle tracks all along the insides of both forearms. Talk about quilting dangerously.
But it was worth it.
Michael thinks I’m nuts sometimes, but even he has to admit the end result was beautiful.
That’s the gritty truth of an artist’s addiction to his/her craft. No matter the ill immediate consequences that we suffer personally, nothing will deter us from achieving our goal of adding a bit of beauty to this old world.
Maybe we shouldn’t even want to. Without a bit of pain no one would have ever painted the Mona Lisa, or built the Parthenon, or invented quilting in the first place.
Those Who Love Us
Speaking of my darling Michael, have any of you ever read or heard Hank the Cowdog books? They are positively hilarious – especially the audio book versions – but when you read about Slim Chance, just substitute Michael’s name instead.
This man of mine never moves fast, leans as soon as he stops and takes forever to think things through.
To his credit, his thinking is vastly different from mine and he often comes up with a solution that would never occur to me. He’s awesome, but I digress.
The point is that I’ve only seen him move fast 3 times:
When Suzanna decided an anthill was a perfect place to play
When the kids were playing in the ocean surf and a long dark shape showed itself in an oncoming wave
And when I sewed through my thumbnail
The needle had pulled out of the machine and was sticking out the fleshy side of my thumb through my thumb nail. That was not fun. Michael really jumped that time – I’m pretty sure that I screamed loudly. Being Michael, he promptly got his needle nose pliers and pulled.
Amazingly, while it was the first time I’d sewed through my thumb nail, it wasn’t the first time I’d sewn through the side of my thumb.
Last year, I was having vision problems in my left eye. But I live on the edge and do quilting dangerously, so instead of stopping, I kept leaning closer and closer to see what I was sewing and actually scraped the end of my nose with the needle. Now, that would have hurt!
Consequences of Quilting Dangerously
I have a special set of quilting pins that are about 3” long and sharp as lances, consequently many times I’ve had to wash out spots of blood from being stabbed. On my dangerous quilting journey I also:
Been burned with hot glue
Shoved hand sewing needles under my fingernail
And glued various body parts together
But it’s all worth it to me – because like any true addict I like the results. I read about one quilter who had actually glued her bottom to the floor. I found that hilarious but not surprising.
So there I am getting pierced and looking at the piercing guy. He’s tattooed from neck to ankles and I started thinking about how many needle punctures THAT took – and he did it on purpose! Now that’s addiction – of a different kind, but addiction nonetheless.
So maybe we’re not as insane as we may seem – when we keep on quilting despite the hazards – and we have something to show for it at the end of the day. And, at least our needle marks aren’t permanent.
