My recent creative works have been all about quilting. This project is a long time coming as I started it in March. I finally gave it to my brother as a surprise gift so I can show my process. There is a Video Log you can watch at the bottom of this post also.
My brother loves motorcycles and I wanted to make a quilt he could use on his bed. The finished size is a queen and I also made two pillows with leftover fabric. If you haven't done a quilt this size it is quite a project to get planned and completed. There are so many decisions that have to be made. I knew the design would include logos from his favorite motorcycle manufacturer. The color scheme would naturally need to be dark red and white or cream.
I had a pattern book with a lot of traditional blocks and I chose the King's Crown because it has a blank center that would be perfect for embroidery.
This is the pattern book and it does have plastic templates you can use to cut out your fabric pieces. I knew I would have to use a large piece of fabric to do all of the embroidery blocks first and once I read the pattern, I thought I might be able to find an easier way to piece each block. I found a great quilting site online that includes video instruction. It is called www.teresadownunder.com
Teresa has very clear instructions that were slightly different from the Patchwork book. I am finding just like sewing, that piecing and quilting can be done in many different ways.
Teresa has very clear instructions that were slightly different from the Patchwork book. I am finding just like sewing, that piecing and quilting can be done in many different ways.
Muslin was my fabric of choice for the embroidery. I used a lightweight interfacing on the back of the entire piece. Once I digitized the embroidery designs, I did test stitch outs to make sure they looked good. This process takes some time to mark out on that large piece of fabric. I made sure there was an extra 1/2 inch in between each design placement area so I could have some fudge room when cutting out.
When figuring out how everything would look, I used Microsoft Publisher. It is easy to make shapes and fill them with color or logos. You can add borders also. This is a fun way to visualize your quilt before you do any kind of cutting or sewing. It isn't helpful with your measuring and fabric purchase needs. So the Patchwork pattern book helped me figure out how much fabric for the desired size.
Plastic templates helped me mark all over the large piece of muslin. The embroidery was a very large part of this quilt and it took some time to complete.
Each logo had to be sewn in a new hooping. The lighter fabric was something I had to be very careful with also. I was worried about staining it while it was being embroidered and pieced.
Cutting out all of the block pieces for a quilt this size takes some time also if you aren't following a pattern exactly. I am still learning about strip cutting and making the most out of my time while cutting. So getting to this point was such a milestone.
This particular block was a new adventure for me with the points. I know better now for my next quilt that pressing matters as does matching the points. This was the first time I pieced a quilt with all of these type join areas. You can see in the cream blocks my seams don't match. I have since done another quilt and I did much better on it. You have to start somewhere though and I wanted to show you that it is not perfect. How else do we learn except to try and see what can be improved upon?
The quilting was a big endeavor because I used a new tool. The Handi Quilter Amara with a 12 foot table is my newest addition to my craft. I have wanted a computerized quilting machine for many years. I did a blog post on my Grace Cutie Frame as well as a video showing all of the ways I added things to make it more productive. You can read that here. I still use that frame with my sewing machine and I like it for the mobility. This Handi Quilter Amara with frame is stationary and my plan is to use it for those large quilts that are heavier to handle. The older I get, I am realizing that physically, my will to do something far exceeds my ability. Expanding my digitizing to quilting is also a natural fit so I hope to learn how to create some computerized designs in the future.
My imperfect piecing coupled with the embroidery made an edge to edge design impractical on this quilt. I learned really quickly how to do multi point placement with the Pro-Stitcher. So each block was custom quilted and I was pleasantly surprised how well the quilting nested together. Here is the back of the quilt.
The design I chose came in the Pro-Stitcher software and it worked really well. I learned that when the machine passed over those points that weren't exactly pieced it did catch underneath because of the thickness. So I chose a computerized design that would not sew over those areas. Instead I looked for something that would concentrate on the open places and away from the points and embroidery. My blocks did have skewed areas and the Pro-Stitcher was awesome to put each design exactly where it worked best.
The binding was done on my sewing machine. I have a feeling I am going to get a lot of practice doing this.
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The extra fabric left over from the quilt was used to make throw pillows. I just increased the size of the embroidery designs to the largest hoop I have and stitched out like the block fabric.
So it all turned out better than I hoped. My brother loved his birthday present and I learned so much. I think the biggest lesson is patience. I have steered away from piecing harder blocks in the past and I feel like I am entering a new phase of learning. So much to learn and not enough time is how I am feeling right now. On to the next project. Remember to check out the video for this quilt below! I hope you have enjoyed this post, share what you learn and are generous with what you create. Someone will appreciate your hard work.
