Quilting

After months of sewing the hexagons together, I needed to think about the quilting.  I knew I wanted some overall quilting that would hold things together well, but would’t overwhelm or underwhelm the quilt.

Lucky for me I had signed up for a great Craftsy class. Creative quilting with your walking foot. Jacquie Gering is an excellent teacher. Most important lesson, it’s a walking foot, not a running foot. Don’t try and sew fast. I made the quilt sandwich and practiced. I’ve had the fabric on the left for about 5 years, Yes, I did use some of it amongst the hexies, but this is just one of those fabrics I don’t know what to do with. Perfect for practice, since my quilt top is very busy. I like the way this is looking.I am using Aurifil thread, no. 40 in a non distcript grey tone. I don’t want the quilting lines to stand out. I want a fluid flowing feeling to the quilt. Something that will soften the hexagon grid. Of course it is easier to see the quilting on the larger patches of the back.Close up of the quilting. The other very nice thing is, since I am not quilting on a solid fabric, my many imperfections are invisible.Wow, this is going so fast! In comparison to the hand sewing.  It isn’t easy maneuvering  through the machine. Since I am using a walking foot I can only sew forward – no reverse like free motion quilting. I’m about 2/3 done here and I really like what I’m seeing, or not really seeing.The area closest to the camera is unquilted. I like the texture, I also like that the colors and the hexies are still the stars here.Same thing on the back. Sometimes the quilting is meant to be the star. In this case, I need dense quilting but I want it to fade into the background. Many of my hexies had a very scant 1/4″ seam allowance.  I need to anchor it all in place. This isn’t a show piece, this will be my cuddle up quilt on the couch.

As I quilt along I’m smelling the starch, not a bad smell at all. Also as I wrangle it through the machine, the stiffness of the starch is abating, but I haven’t had any problem with the glue basting shifting or coming loose!  I think I’ve got a winner here in my basting technique!