Thursday, August 15, 2013

A little bit of machine quilting

I took a look at my pile of UFO's and decided that unless I either won the lottery and quilted them "by check" or re-learned to machine quilt they would never be finished.

Since the first is highly unlikely I sat myself down this week and started my lessons all over again...

I think the new table is helping a lot.  My arms and shoulders were not nearly as tired after an hour of "play" than they have been in the past.  I am taking it slow...just one new stitch a day for 15 or 20 minutes.  First I did some plain cross hatching then I tried the wavy channel stitch on some "left-over" table-runners and small quilts. (by left-over I mean I sewed together what was left-over on my cutting mat after I finished a quilt...the purple batiks was a Quilt of Valor for a sailor and the blues was from the Bermuda Seaglass quilt.)

I still love the look of hand-quilting but not all (or even most!) quilts need or deserve to be hand quilted.  So just maybe a few minutes at the machine each day will make a dent in my pile (50 +) of tops hidden in the back of my closet!

Also find machine quilting a great way to hide in the sewing room while the rug cleaners work in the other rooms!  Love when the rugs are clean but hate the process of having them cleaned...sigh.  All the furniture is moved in to the rooms with the hardwood floor which means everything is what they call down-here-in-the- south "cattywompus."  It will be weeks before everything is where I can find it again!


5 comments:

Janet O. said...

Good job, Sio. I come from a hard line "hand quilting only" mother, but I finally had to face the fact that machine quilting was the only way things would get finished. It takes me forever to finish one by hand and I cannot afford to pay someone to quilt it all.
So cattywompus is a real term! *LOL* My Dad's father was from Tennessee, and my Dad lived in Georgia and South Carolina for a couple of years in his young adulthood. We've used that term as long as I can remember, but I thought my Dad must have made it up.

joyceinsc said...

I love your committment to getting UFO's completed. You inspire me.

joyceinsc said...
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Gypsy Quilter said...

What a wonderful way to spend rug cleaning day. I just had my rugs and carpets done in July and I'm still putting back. But it's nice to have it done for the year!

Sharon said...

Good for you! I think your quilting looks great. And not hurting afterwards is even better!

I have to work harder at getting some of my UFO's machine quilted too. Thanks for the nudge.

I hate rug-cleaning day. That sounds like a good way to spend it. And putting everything back afterwards...ugh! Good luck! Hope it goes smoothly.