I know this may come as a shock but, I’m finishing a quilt. A real one! I figured it was about time, seeing as though I have my a-maz-ing new sewing machine now.
When I started this quilt (FOUR YEARS AGO) I was a firm believer in the idea that a quilt wasn’t a quilt unless it was completely made by hand. No sewing machines allowed. I now realize that is a dumb idea. Seriously dumb. No freaking wonder I burnt out on quilting.
Hand piecing everything + hand quilting everything = kinda boring.
I’ve always really wanted to come back to working on this quilt. I put it away partially because I had a lot of trouble figuring out what I wanted to use as a backing fabric. (I ended up going with a super cute Michael Miller print–white with black exclamation points.) But the real reason why I gave up on it initially is because I was really tired of hand quilting. I had just finished
this for two of my friends and I really just had enough. I thought about machine quilting at that point, but I’m glad that I waited until now. My old machine was so much less reliable about even stitches than my sexy new machine. (yep. I said sexy.)
But even with my new machine and walking foot on, I’ve had a hard time controlling the spacing in stitches. It’s been getting better, but I’ve noticed that I have to be really careful about not letting the weight of the quilt pull at all while I’m feeding it into the machine. I was also really thrown off by not having tight tension on all three layers of the sandwich. When I hand quilt, I use a hoop to hold the layers tight, but when you sew on a machine, you really just leave it all up to your basting work. It’s odd at first, but I’m getting used to it now.
So, just a little more quilting to go, plus the binding. I’m ready to have this four year project finished.
it looks great! congrats! 🙂
I love it! My grandma once tried to convince me to handquilt, but then what’s the point of having a nice new sewing machine that can do it fractions of the time?
This looks amazing!
That is so cute! Sarah I found your blog a couple of months ago, right after I moved to Michigan with my fam. and when I saw you were in Michigan I was like “Whoa!” I love your stuff, and I think your blog/esty shop are so adorable!
I can completely understand what you’re saying about hand piecing and quilting but I do love it. Very cute quilt. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
good for you! i was a hand quilter forever…no wonder i only finished a few quilts. i drank the machine quilting kool aide and i’m sort of glad i did. your quilt is so fun. congrats!
It looks fabulous! I really really like it. That background print is perfect.
it’s fabulous! it doesn’t matter how long it took you…
Now it’s done and it’s forever.