vertical

Vertical basting - basting on the wall. My latest quilt top "vertical", composed of horizontal rows of strings of different widths. Scrappy. Green with accompanying yellow / orange and pink.  

About 60" * 80". Quilters Dream Select cotton batting. Pinning standing up or sitting / standing on a chair... Considering how to quilt it.

Can you believe this is my post number 400! Thank you all for being part of my blogging with kind and lovely comments and questions over the years.  To celebrate I want to share how to do this vertical basting.

A short picture tutorial:

• the backing up first, curtain clips and painters tape
• the batting up second, same curtain clips, just smoothed out with the quilting ruler after softening the crinkles with a short spin in the dryer
• the quilt top up last, sticking to the batting, being smoothed out with the same ruler until satisfying result is achieved
• pinning as close as prefered

not shown: removing the quilt sandwich from the wall, cutting off excess batting (leaving at least 2" extra batting and 4" extra backing. Folding up the excess backing over the excess batting and thread basting the edge. This prevents loose fibers on your clothing while handling or hand-quilting.

Wish you all a beautiful Sunday!

; )

slowly (wednesday wip)

Slow progress and slow stitching going on here. The brown quilt was basted on the floor, using the clever tool Kwik klip to close the basting pins. Good tool, will become a new favorite, I think. 

Those lovely but loose woven side triangles was very flimsy and resisting to be flat (bias cuts tend to be wavy...). Improvised a solution by sewing a couple of big stitch straight seams and pulled at the threads to shrink to measure. So far, it's working well, but the quilting is not finished, yet...

I have started by quilting in the ditch. And then planning to add some simple hand quilting to the blocks. Slow, but enjoyable work.

Also sewing by hand on a flannel hexagon pillow to be. Big hexagons (3") and pajama parts from Heather Ross mixed with some blenders. Soft winter pastels. Planning on quilting it by machine. Another slow wip...

Quiet and slow, that's me! At least for now. Hope you all have some sewing to enjoy.

; )

wordy wednesday wip

I wanted to share a bit of my process quilting this cloud 9 top. A few times I have tried basting a quilt while it's hanging on the wall and not laying on a floor. Sometimes crawling on my knees and basting is not so tempting...

In the first two pictures you can see my glider curtain system. I put my back up first, right side facing the wall. Then I secure it with painters tape, stretching it out as flat as possible. This particulate backing is a 54" wide cotton voile - very slippery!!!

Then I centered and attached my light polyester batting with pins to the backing. Again, stretching it out and taping it to the wall. 

Last layer is the top; centered, pinned and taped to the wall as well.

The basting is done using my favorite bent quilters safety pins. I have to say it was great using them while standing up!!!

; )

This big star variation top is made from left over triangles from my sea glass quilt and egyptian cotton. The star blocks are 23" big, and I wanted to try something new: clam shell utility quilting. Inspired by the lovely book by Carolyn Forster: "Utility quilting -  simple solutions for quick hand quilting."  (This book was introduced to me by Mary of Molly Flanders; thank you!)

Using a full 8" diameter circle paper template. Big open quilting. Aiming for a light, summery and soft quilt. The pins ended up in the center of each clam shell by sheer luck. I love how the clam shells makes me think of clouds...

; )

Having fun with my favorite perle 16 and embroidery needles. Marking with a grey chalk pencil, three rows at a time. 

Wish you all a lovely wednesday!