Monday, May 30, 2016

DWM 5-30-16: Lots of little stuff... and a big dilemma

My design wall is a hodge-podge of blocks today. Lots of projects but nothing is far enough along to be anything yet.
Miscellaneous stuff on my wall

From left to right:
Blocks for a fund raiser quilt. This quilt will be raffled off to help support The Quintessential Quilt 2017 quilt show in University City MO. Members of CSQ guild are all making blocks - several types - and sashing units for this quilt. Blocks are due at the July meeting.
Raffle quilt blocks

A Bee block in greens. She asked us to raid our green scraps, and I had a lot of greens.
Scrappy green bee block

Purple test blocks for a new project. I'll work on piecing more of these Log Cabin Triangle blocks at a sew-in and a retreat later in June. 
LC Triangle test blocks

A priority on the schedule for June: quilting Dancing Plus. Here's part of it, pinned and basted. (You can see the whole top in yesterday's post; scroll down.)
Dancing Plus pinned & basted for quilting

For budget reasons I need to quilt it myself, not send it to a long armer, but it will be the largest I've ever attempted. My quilting skills are limited to the walking foot and free motion meandering. I've considered several design possibilities, including wavy organic lines a la Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts, an allover meander, and a modified meander. 

I'm considering a modified meander with circles in each of the pluses. You can see some of the markings above. I tried a small test, placing the circles the same distance apart they would be in the actual quilt top. Here's the back side of my test swatch:
Quilting test

The circles measure a little less than 3" across. With the stitch regulator on my new Bernina I can manage to sew around them on the markings, although they're by no means perfect circles. I thought about trying to meander the background and FMQ in the ditch around the plus shapes, but it's a lot of sharp turns. The circles may be easier. 

Or not. This quilt is 60 x 75" and that's a lot of weight to wrestle with. I'm very apprehensive about quilting this one. Maybe I should go back to the organic wavy lines concept after all. 

Input and suggestions are welcome; please leave a comment. 

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times

9 comments:

  1. Loving the LC Triangles! I think organic lines would look nice on the Plus quilt -- definitely easier to manage at that scale!

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  2. Your blocks are great. I especially like the green star. I agree with Libby that organic lines would be nice on your Plus quilt.

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  3. Your green block is my favorite! And I'm with the other two... organic lines would look great with your quilt design.

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  4. I find that I worry about things like the circles not being perfect... and then when a quilt gets finished and washed, the minor details get harder to see. I think that something like the all over meander might work really well with a larger quilt. I would definitely suggest something that you find easy to start and stop as you will be needing to re-adjust the quilt weight as you move along.

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  5. Love those green scraps, the triangle log cabin, and your dancing pluses. Wavy lines would be perfectly adequate but I do love the circles as a good contrast with the pieced pluses. I free-motioned some imperfect circles on a Christmas quilt last year and only I would have noticed they are not perfect!

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  6. Hi! Love your quilting ideas and blocks on the wall. My FMQ skills are limited, but improving with each top. I recently wrestled a 75" square and did a meandering loop de loop design. I was amazed at how easily it flowed with all the bulk I had to manage. The tesxture was lovely once washed and all my perceived mistakes vanished. Give it a try �� P.S. - I can't do stipples but yours look great!! Can't wait to see what you end up doing.

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  7. The green scrappy star is pretty cool. Green and white is always such crisp combination. I don't do my own quilting, but I think either option you've considered would work well.

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  8. All your blocks are so pretty. I think I'm partial to the LC Triangles as purple is my favorite color right now. Love your Dancing Plus quilt with all the pretty fabrics.

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  9. A lot of times I have a plan for the quilting but once I sit down with the quilt it changes. Definitely avoid making a lot of turns like using the walking foot around the pluses. Have you thought about FMQ straight lines around the pluses? Just remember that you don't have to ,love the quilt as a whole while FMQ. I like to work in a little puddle o that I'm not moving the entire thing at the same time.

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