On a happy note, I did get my Scrappy Tumbler quilted!! Yes, I was doing the Happy Dance. 🙂 I have to say “I LOVE IT!” I am very pleased with the quilting.
I’m actually pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it looks. I quilted the entire top freehand.
I used wool batting. Have I mentioned how much I love wool batting??? It’s the best!! It makes the quilting look so beautiful, even without being washed yet.
I did have a few minor hurdles to overcome with this quilt. First, if you remember I originally planned on FMQ this on my Janome 6600P, so I had already spray basted and layered the quilt together.
Yeah, that ended up being a bit of a sticky situation. Ha, ha!! It just made everything really sticky on Annie. I just had to make sure everything rolled up evenly, so there were no pleats. The batting was the biggest pain. It really wanted to stick together!
Second, my backing was almost not big enough for Annie. LAers need about an extra 8″ in width and length on a backing. As you roll the quilt on a LA, you need that extra fabric, especially if the quilt isn’t very square. I like to use the image of rolling a phone book up as an example. If the quilt backing isn’t that much bigger than the top, you’ll run out of backing before the quilt top is quilted. I JUST made it. My top was surprisingly pretty square.
Third, I didn’t do a very good job piecing the backing. I had some fullness in the seams. That would cause the backing to sag a bit in places. I made some adjustments as I would advance the quilt to make sure I didn’t quilt in any pleats on the backing.
I’m so excited to have one of my quilts to use in my house!! I’ve been draping it around the furniture to see how it looks. Well, admiring how it looks!! LOL! I will be working on the binding this weekend in my spare time. I plan on practicing border designs, specifically feather borders. I’m thrilled to say I’ve been getting customer quilts in, so I need to get going on those!! I want to thank everyone for all the kind and encouraging comments regarding my quilting!! Thanks so much!!
***Prayers to all those effected by the devastating earthquake and tsunami***