Free Motion Quilting Success

You've seen in my many posts about quilting that I'm a one trick pony when it comes to my sewing machine and quilting.

But after a trip to a Bernina dealer, this pony has learned a new trick!  I free motion quilted the most recent quilt I made for a friend's little boy.  The quilt was supposed to be an awesome tumbleweed pattern but there was something really bizarre in the layout, so the tumbleweeds lost some of their points.

Free motion quilting is a technique that allows you to sew in any direction you want.  The fabric doesn't just have to move forward.  This is what allows the random pattern you see.  For years, I thought my machine wouldn't do it properly because I thought I had an issue with my presser foot but the dealer assured me it works just like it's supposed to and after completing this, I agree!

The contrast to the red, orange and yellow is a print with whales on it, but I really didn't choose a good pattern because the whales are bigger than the blades of the tumbleweeds, so you can't really see them.  The blue was to mimic the ocean, but now that it's together, it's not at all how I envisioned.

I don't make baby quilts in soft colors since so many people now use them for tummy time instead of sleeping, so I love to use bright colors.

THis is one of the better blocks, where the points all pretty much came together in the center, but you'll notice that the sea creatures blades lost all of their points.  Since it happened in every block, I"m pretty sure it's the pattern, not me.

I never pre-wash quilts, but this one had a peculiar smell and there was this little disaster that I needed to fix:

Somehow, in my super neat sewing room- oh my gosh my stomach hurts from laughing so hard; we all know my sewing room is less than neat.  Anyway, in my sewing room, there must have been a piece of orange fabric on the floor that managed to stick to the back and it got caught in my free motion quilting.  I realized it when there was some weird dragging.  I cut as much as I could away and hoped that in the wash, the fibers might fall out.  They sort of did and I was able to use tweezers to remove the rest.

I used the backing to self bind and I sewed it by hand.   I was going to do it on the machine but I didn't want it to interfere with the quilting I had done.  Plus Daisy wanted to sit on it.

Another reason I had to wash it!

Since this baby's name is an easy one to write in cursive, I thought I'd try "writing" it at the bottom.

Here you can see the front and back on the bottom border.  I wrote it 5 or 6 times across.

I free motion quilted one other time but I didn't like how stiff it came out.  This one came out just as I wanted and after washing, it had a little puckering, which I liked.  It took less time than  my wavy technique and definitely way less fighting with the machine.

I didn't roll this at all.  I pin basted and then used the stuffing method where I would organize a spot and push it through, leave the needle down and organize some more, etc.

Overall this was a great experience and I have two others waiting in the wings.

Linking here:
https://www.skiptomylou.org/made-by-you-monday-52/
http://www.juliescreativelifestyle.com/