Bohemian Wife Quilting

I've finally made a start on getting the Bohemian Wife quilt actually quilted. First I did the vertical lines. A lot of stopping and starting, but it worked out. Used the walking foot, it went very well. 

Then I switched over to quilting the quilt blocks. And it turns out, I really should have switched over the thread color I was using.  

The medium red/purple that I was using blended in pretty well with all those vertical prints and on a lot of the blocks. A lot of the blocks have straight lines, which are tough to do well with free motion quilting. 

So I got out my new ruler quilting foot and the ruler I bought to go with it. Definitely straightened up my lines a lot, (especially for my first time) but still not good enough especially with that dark thread. And a lot of the blocks use lighter colored fabrics as well which makes that situation even more apparent. The quilting ruler is on the quilt there, but it's quite see-through isn't it?

I pinned up the quilt on the design wall to see if it was even visible from a normal viewing distance. Nope, not really. 

But a couple steps away from the quilt and yikes on bikes! Just to me, it will always bug me. I'm not planning on entering this in any shows or competitions, so it truly doesn't matter. Except I'll know it looks bad and takes away from the look of the quilt I've spent so much time making. 

I will have to pick out a whole bunch of quilting and then switch over to a lighter color so every little but and squiggle shows up so plainly.. Sigh, still un-picking and trying not to just give up on this one when I'm so close to finishing.

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Mosaic Runner Done

 

I did a little more quilting in the smaller squares on the Mosaic Runner.

But eventually, I stopped due to the bobbin running out. And it seemed done enough to m

I made a 2" binding out of smallish pieces of some of the darker fabrics that I used in the top. And that's all done.

Mosaic Runner Quilted?

 

Before the BAMQ meeting today, I had just enough time to do most of the walking foot quilting on the Mosaic table runner. My machine mostly behaved, but I think something may be going wrong with the foot pressure and maybe stitch length regulator?

Pretty sure it might need some more quilting though.

I think I might go around each "frame" once, especially in the bigger blocks. Probably not in the smaller ones.

A lot of dense quilting would get pretty lost in the sauce here!

 Pretty close to done, but I need to figure out a good binding, solid? a mix of the same prints? We shall see...

6x6 Quilted

 

Diving back into the diagonal walking foot quilting on the 6x6 quilt.

How the quilt looks all squashed up on the table while I'm quilting.

There's all the diagonals done. I like the X's that show up in the solids a whole lot.

Now for the binding.

6x6 Diagonal

 

Time for more quilting to get done on the 6x6 quilt. The back shows the square grid that I've done following the blocks of the front of the quilt.

I'm going diagonal in one direction over the whole quilt. Using the Hera Marker and ruler to keep my quilting line straight.

The next quilting is going well, but my machine is acting up. Sometimes the walking foot isn't engaging, and the feed dog don't seem to work correctly so the stitches get way too small. I think I might switch it out for my old one to get it finished.

Here's how it looks with the diagonals quilted in just one direction. I think I might do the reverse diagonal to finish the quilting off.

6x6 Anchor Quilting

 

Time to get this quilt sandwich set up on the sewing machine. I've got the right thread colors in the top (orange) and bottom (lime green), the walking foot is on, a new needle is installed, the surrounding surfaces are cleared off and flat.

Starting with the center vertical line going mostly along the block edges. Not quite in-the-ditch, but close to that.

In some cases, the vertical line doesn't carry on continuously, so time for some Hera marking to get from point A to point B.

I marked as I went down each line, using my wonderful American Vantage point turner/Hera marker that friend Jaye gave me. It makes a really good visible line in both prints and solids. Very easy to follow while quilting.

Here's how it's looking after quilting both vertical and horizontal 4" spaced out lines. I think I might go on the diagonal now to add interest. Or maybe just split up the squares into 2" spacing vertically and horizontally.