Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Still Going!

Hi, everyone!  I'm still chugging along on Les Pensées de Grandma.  I've now got both sides of the lattice work sewn down where the fabrics have frayed.  So ... not the whole lattice structure, but on the rather "delicate" areas.  Now, I feel confident to run my Bernina over the entire lattice and stitch it all down by machine.  That's where I am with that.

No photos of it yet; I forgot to take my iPhone downstairs while I was working on it yesterday.

I finished sewing the binding on the small Civil War Practice quilt!  Take a look:

IMG_7460CivilWarPracticeQuilt

I'm really pleased with how it came out. Now that I've had even more time to think about it, I have a feeling I started it in the late 90s.

I quilted it using my walking foot -

IMG_7461CivilWarPracticeQuiltFlipSide

My straight lines got better as I went along! Sometimes it just takes me a while to relax and get the feel of things.

Speaking of which ...

I've been watching all these videos of "ruler work" - using a thick ruler to guide your presser foot as you machine quilt. I was totally intrigued - until I saw how expensive the foot for the Bernina is. I mean, seriously? $80-90 for a FOOT?!? I put it on the mental back burner ... then my friend Pam in South Africa showed me a big Bernina sale coupon! 25% off at participating shops! AWESOME!

I flew out to the nearest Bernina shop, came home with their only #72 foot, and started trying to see what I could do. Oh. I did NOT like any of the over-priced rulers they had, so I primed the ones I wanted from Amazon.

I discovered I stink at true free-motion quilting. I only semi-stink with the BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator), but you can't REALLY use that with the rulers. You sort of can ... but you can't. Anyway, what I found after much practice was that if I get my feel, my rhythm, with the BSR first, then switch over to the 72 foot, I'm not terrible. And if I look closely at the work shown on some of the vids I've watched ... I'm REALLY not bad. At least on small, practice things.

So - I've been working on that. Just doodling. Switching between the BSR and the 72. It's kind of fun!

I also came up with the fix for a hole (frayed fabs) on the pansy quilt. It was a side seam on one of the pansies.  I had hoped that I had some of the sashing fabric - flowery, seed packets, colorful - but no. Too bad. I really thought trying to fussy cut a seed packet would be a good idea. Next best thing? Make my own seed packet! I grabbed some Pigma Pens and some muslin and ...

IMG_7557SeedPktLabel

Not perfect, but I think once I hit it with some tea to subdue it a bit, it will look like it belongs there!

Today I hope to get more of the lattice done, then think about a backing!

Thanks for reading!
KZK

2 comments:

  1. I love your seed packet! I've been working on ruler quilting too. My local quilt shop did a series of classes using the Westalee Starter set (https://www.nancysnotions.com/ruler-foot-template-starter-set.html). I'm almost done with all the blocks from the classes with only two to go. I'm not sure what resources you've found but would be happy to trade knowledge if you are interested. The nice thing about the classes is that we worked on blocks separately so you didn't have a huge quilt to contend with. It was great for learning. Next I have to figure out what other "rulers" I want to buy. Yes they aren't cheap so I like to find a set that I can do a lot of different things with. My mom also took the classes so we are trying not to buy duplicate ruler sets so we can share since she lives near by. Good luck with the ruler work. I love your Civil War Practice quilt and think the lines look very straight.

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  2. Love the seed packet! What a brilliant idea and it's perfect!

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