Friday, February 6, 2009

Bow Tie Quilt & Ramblings

This is what I worked on during the superbowl last Sunday...

and a little bit every evening up until yesterday. That sewing cabinet is now my absolute favorite place to machine quilt. This blue & yellow bow tie quilt top that I made nearly a year ago now, is the second project I've machine quilted using the cabinet.

I don't usually do this for meandering, but I attempted to keep from having loops suddenly end by pulling my bobbin thread to the top, knotting, and burying the ends - as opposed to using smaller stitches to secure the threads. I like this method because it can make stops and starts nearly invisible.

Something else that seems to work for me is to keep a straight pin, all-purpose needle, and seam ripper on a magnet close at hand, along with the safety pins that I remove as I go along. I use the straight pin to pull bobbin thread to the top of the quilt, and sometimes use the needle if the stitches were too tight and I wasn't able to pull it up. Of course, sewing machines do goofy things at times, and you are then faced with a mess of stitches to rip, so I like to keep a ripper handy too.

4 comments:

Red Geranium Cottage said...

Great quilt. I love it!!

Anonymous said...

sweet little quilt!

Kayla said...

I love this quilt! I have been wanting to make a bow tie quilt, but as of yet haven't gotten to it. Your free motion quilting is great too. I am not very good at it, so mostly stick to straight lines. I do a lot of grids!

Anne Ida said...

This is such a pretty quilt! And you're doing a great job on the meandering! Mmmm... I agree with you that knotting and burying the threads leave a neater look, I always do it on those "special" projects, but sometimes I just can't be bothered ;o)