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Sunday 24 May 2009

How come I can't quilt straight lines???

I do have a finish to show, but please be patient with me and let me pout a bit? Because this is a serious question! I have tried so many times, but keep on stretching either the top or the backing out of place. I have tried with my walking foot, and without my walking foot... what do I do wrong?? Rose has quilted straight lines in the sashing on Nanny Sharon's Picnic quilt, and I really love the effect, and wanted to give it a try. It started out ok:



...but once I started to put in more than the two lines, it stretched and it puckerd, and didn't look good at all! (...and in my frustration I forgot to take another pic!) I spent hours late Friday night picking out stitches! I ended up doing some swirly meandering:
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I really love the effect of it! ...but it's not what I planned...
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Here's a close-up of the quilting in the appliqué blocks:

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...and in the "plain" four patch blocks I used a roll of "Blocks Made Easy" pattern #202:

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The back while quilting was in progress:


I got up a quarter passed five yesterday, and quilted most of the day, the stippling in the borders took a lot of time. I finished stitching down the binding a couple of minutes passed midnight, and, ta-da:



So happy to have it finished for summer and picnic season!! I wanted to take a pic outside in the back yard this morning, so hopefully the colours would show up more correctly, but we had more rain again last night and everything is soaking wet (typical!). If it dries up during the day, I might replace this pic :o)

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday!
Hugs and stitches from
Anne Ida
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PS! I promised to give my verdict on the Lickety Grip; I used it the whole time I quilted this quilt. My feeling is that it's wonderful as long as you don't have to take too much of the weight of the quilt. But it's not really strong enough to give a good grip in the centre of a large quilt - I wouldn't use it on anything larger than this one.

19 comments:

May Kristin said...

Wow! Your quilt turned out really gorgeous! And to your machinequilting questions...I'll leave those for some other to answer, I haven't had the guts to try this out, yet!

Tone Yvonne said...

Jeg vet, jeg vet!!!
Fordi det er en umennesklig ferdighet........ Rette linjer. Ville ikke klart det om så livet stod på spill.......

Ut over det må jeg si at teppet ditt er absolutt HELT FANTASTISK!!!! Quiltingen er helt nydelig :o)

Ønsker deg en fin søndag også :o) kos deg masse i solen!!!!

STOR klem fra meg :o)

Birgitta i Gävle said...

Vilken helt ljuvlig kvilt du har sytt. Din kviltning är helt fantastisk.
Birgitta i Arboga

Litamora's Quilt & Design said...

Quiltingen på teppet ble bare lekkert! Men forstår frustrasjonen din, når du ikke får til det du planla. Jeg bruker å sette knappenåler langs sømmene je skal quilte i gropa eller slik du tenkte. Så plukker jeg de ut etter hvert som jeg syr. Det blir litt av et pinnsvin å holde på med, men det funker ... Jeg har ikke funnet annet som hjelper. Jeg bruker knappenålene i alle kryssene i tillegg, og de er også ganske tett.
Ha en flott søndag:o)
Lappeklem,
Laila

Anne-Grethe said...

Nydelig teppe med flott quilting! Det er ikke lett å behandle noe så stort inni en vanlig symaskin. Beundrer deg som har stått på og hatt tålmodighet til å gjøre det ferdig!

Rose Johnston said...

Oh it looks so great sweetie, well done!! Love the plain block quilting and the stippling looks great! Did u put in the rock pockets??
As for your question, Im not sure why it is puckering. Ive done that with the old machine (on Family Values) and with Princess and I havent had puckering but there is nothing more frustrating than unpicking quilting!!
Big hugs xxx

Inger said...

Teppet ditt ble kjempefint. Du har gjort en utrolig flott jobb. Ha en riktig fin søndag.

Laila said...

Nydeleg teppe med flott quilting. Eg forstår ikkje korleis du greier å handtere eit så stort teppe i ei vanleg symaskin og attpå til få det så fint. Tru meg, eg har prøvd, og her hos meg vart det berre tull.

Vicki W said...

What a pretty quilt and I think your quilting looks great!

*karendianne. said...

Wow. I love this. So very pretty and personally, your quilting is amazing. Thanks for sharing insight into the Lickety Grip. I'm not thinking of doing any machine quilting because it slays my body but still, I do like to be "in the know" as they say. I don't know who they are but I'm prepared - in case!

jofridsquilt said...

Teppet ditt blei flott. Eg er virkelig imponert over at du får til å quilte så store tepper i ei vanleg symaskin. Når eg skal quilte rette linjer bruker eg tråkling pluss masse nåler. Helsing Jofrid

jeanette said...

Vad snyggt det blev!!!

Elin said...

Eg sluttar meg til alle dei andre, dette er kjempefint! Er verkeleg imponert over frihandskviltinga di. Elles så skriv Timotei om spraylim som funkar godt for henne. Du bruker vel overtransportør? Lukke til vidare!

Unknown said...

The quilt is awesome! I would like to get answer to your question as I have this problem too.

Teresa said...

Its a pretty quilt and I think your quilting looks great. Afraid I have no suggestions to give about the straight line quilting, but I have had the problem sometimes. Usually its because I stretched the fabric when I was putting the quilt top together and the fabric pucker just a tad, not really noticeable until I start quilting it.

QuiltingFitzy said...

OMGosh, it's LOVELY!

I'm going to make a guess about your straight lines -

No matter what you do, you will never, ever cut a fabric truely ON GRAIN. That is, cutting between two threads. So..when you sew, at some point, your needle has to either penetrate a thread, or jump (or roll-off) to the right or left of a thread, giving you a less than perfectly straight line. I'd guess the best idea is to have the sharpest needle to begin with, and let the needle fall where it may.

It's a perfectly stunning quilt.PERIOD.lol

Sølvis blog said...

Tråkling,tråklespray og nåler burde hjelpe. Hvis ikke får du bare bite i det sure eplet og kjøpe deg en quiltemaskin, der du får spent opp teppet. Men hm - der er det helelr ikek så greit i quilte rette linjer, i hvert fall ikke uten ekstrautstyr som ant ikke fins til de maskinene til hjemmebruk. Uansett så har du gjort en flott jobb med dette teppet.

LeKaQuilt said...

Fantastisk flott quilt! Beundrer quiltingen din, du har gjort en kjempe jobb. Gratulerer :o) Jeg har ikke problemer med rette linjer, mulig fordi jeg tråkkler alle mine prosjekt med renningsgarn, det holder lagene godt sammen. Også bruker jeg overtransportør. Kjøpte tråkletråden på Lappemakeriet....

Elaine Adair said...

The only thing I can suggest is, was that puckered fabric on the width or on the length of grain? I don't really know the answer, but that would be my guess.

Next, I really don't notice much wrong. Quilting straight lines is why we do curvey lines! LOL And when it's washed you will not see one thing wrong. Your nose/eyes are tooooo close to the work.