I promised an update on my sewing machine. So here it is, I took the machine to Mayhall’s, the best sewing repair place around! I was concerned that I’d be waiting months for the part.
Lucky for me, Jerry is an amazing technician. Within a few days, I got a call, he was able to repair the broken part, and he fixed another problem I was having.
He replaced the pre-tension disks with one from Singer. It works, I have never changed any tension there, so I doubt I’d be starting now. I was having problems filling my bobbins, turns out there was thread stuck in there. I wasn’t charged for that part of the repair – so yes, all my machines will be going to Mayhall’s for service.
Juki has come out with its own ruler foot. Yay! Maybe having the correct foot that really fits the machine will stop my thread breakage problems.
Here is a quilting ruler, butted up against the foot. Because the foot is thicker, the ruler won’t bounce under the foot – which could really cause some serious damage to the machine.
I got busy and used the rulers on the central medallion. Uh oh, still having thread skipping and breaking.
Same problem I’ve always had, when I move from left to right or move down to up, threads skip and break, not a problem in the other two directions. Even if I am working on the diagonal this happens.
So I drew some lines and tried it free-motion, yup, still same skipping and breakage.
So I tried good old-fashioned fmq, not a problem at all. Is this because I am moving in all directions?
I had been using Organ Needles size 90, you can see the problem in the lines up top. I had heard that Janome Purple needles are the way to go. So I ordered some and as you can see on the lower lines – yup, more breakage.
I am very frustrated, next I am going to sign up for a class with a live teacher. I will be very very careful transporting my machine, but I need another person who is very good at this needle work to sit down at the machine. Maybe then we can figure out what I am doing wrong since clearly, it is user error.
Leah
I have been working on this block. I do enjoy handwork, a lot! 
Building up layers with needle turn applique is very relaxing.
I was given a lot of green and blue fabrics to work with, I don’t think I used all of them, although I have tried to get a lot of variety in here.
The final touch, a yellow center on every flower. I hand this back to the Valley Quiltmakers Guild this week. It will be fun to see how the whole quilt comes together.
It’s done, it’s yuuuge, it’s wrinkled, there are threads all over it. But it is done!
Love the chickens surrounded by the pineapple blocks, and then there are the bees.
Depending on the fabric choices, pineapple block looks very different. I’m happy with the low volume in the background, it unifies the scrappiness of the quilt. 
Here are the bees, so cute.
This quilt is too big to try and piece the back, so I ordered some extra wide fabric from Connecting Threads, from the sale section, naturally.
Not exactly paper piecing, although those skills are very helpful. Its more about cutting each patch out of freezer paper and adding 1/4″ on all sides. It worked out fine and those paper piecing skill were a big help.
Like paper piecing, the pattern is built up in sections that are then sewn together.
Here is the hen.
And here is the rooster, front and back.
Before I forget, these patterns are by 
I had math to do, these will be surrounded by 12″ blocks, so I had to get the height to 24.5″ and the width to 36.5″
I am loving 
Nope, I don’t like it, which is why I never even finished the second block. Back to Instagram and Pinterest to look at different pineapple quilts.
Much better! I intend to use a lot of green and purple, which come in a gazillion shades and will iother colors like mustard and turquoise. You will notice that there is a block with more background, these will be interspersed among the solid blocks (see the block on the left for what I call a solid block). I think it will add some interest, well it did on other people’s samples.
I am liking this much better, the chickens and their background will be isolated in the middle, framed by the pineapples. Leigh wants a queen size quilt and my design wall just isn’t big enough, from here on out, it’s going to be the floor again.
I have a lot of pineapples to make which makes me happy. I am having a wonderful time with this and I’m loving making these blocks. So thanks Leigh for giving me an opportunity to be creative.
My choice for binding was to simply repeat the red that borders all the blocks. I did hand sew the binding down.
So here I am trying to show you the quilting, and you can’t see anything.
Better, you can see how I did FMQ in the middle of the blocks and used my walking foot on the background. It was a pain using the walking foot, because as you can see, I had small areas where I had to rotate the quilt. UGH, what a pain. Probably would have been easier just to do those wavy line free hand.
It’s on the back that you can see the quilting designs.
My butterflies all in a row.
The feathers, I outlined them and then did shadow quilting inside.
As you step away, you can’t really see the quilting in detail. Clearly the quilting gives a three dimensional affect which is why I quilt so heavily. 
Each bird got slightly different treatment. I did pay attention to the beaks, I wanted them to stand out.
The details of the feather and the birds.
Done and flapping in the wind.
I pieced the back, I’m frugal that way.
This is the after the wash photo. The white is bright, the reds are reds, so what am I talking about?
Now can you see the difference? I am so grateful that it didn’t damage the real whites. The quilt is as lovely as ever. I won’t be keeping this for myself. As much as I enjoyed this, I’m not in love. So some very very lucky friend will receive this for Christmas. Which is why the label will wait until I decide who that lucky person is. Also, I will put in instructions that yes, the quilt can be machine washed and dried, but please use a color catcher sheet when doing so. I have no idea which red crocked, but it may not be done doing so.
The math worked out ok, I thought it would be slightly bigger because of the red borders, but I guess I cut enough out of the sashing that the quilt is almost exactly the size that was stated in the pattern. 
Not a great picture, the shadows certainly distract. I just feel that I’ll get better pictures once it’s quilted.
The pool noodle method of basting the quilt is working very well for me. I did this in about an hour, without breaking my back.
Quilting with red thread on a red design makes it hard to see the quilting, that might be a good thing. 
I truly live by Angela Walters creed, Close enough is good enough. I like the idea of echoing around the shapes, no perfection needed here. I must say, since having the machine serviced, the free motion quilting is coming along great, it’s just with the rulers that the thread keeps breaking. Also, intricate quilting gets lost on print fabric, I just can’t help myself.
I echoed the arrows a few times and then quilted pebbles. This is such a pain to do over a large area since I didn’t have a lot of space to fill, it was worth the effort. 
Before quilting…
…and after. So much dimension here, which is why I love dense quilting, it really does make a difference.
It’s hard to see, I am quilting the white background with meandering lines, done with a walking foot. Which means I need to turn the whole thing around since I’d break the machine if I tried to reverse stitch with a walking foot. Ah, the joys of quilting on a domestic machine. Of course, long arm machines have their own limitations.
…And it’s done! Very happy with the result. Although white on white quilting – you really can’t see what kind of design I was trying to achieve, but hey, it looks great.
I washed and machine dried this one as well. Good thing, since somehow, the white background got a little dirty – and that was before any baby got hold of it. The washing machine did it’s job, and I will tell the new parents that it is their best friend. Better to use the quilt and wash often then hide it away.
Quilting on busy fabric means you can’t really see the quilting, it’s there, it’s holding everything together. I could have used colored thread on the background and my design would have been apparent, but I wanted the whiteness.
My clouds look more like flowers, oh well.
If you look closely you can see my favorite pattern of all, the feather.
Flamingos are a thing right now. I’m seeing them all over. As is JoAnn’s, which is where I got this great backing fabric.
Knowing me, I can’t sit still, so I immediately jumped into a new project. Pineapple blocks with Deb Tucker’s ruler. 
I LOVE the accuracy I got with this ruler. Not crazy about the scrappiness. I think I’ll find a tighter, more cohesive color story. 
Here is an idea for a color story.
Here is another way to go.
Here is a variation on the first. I did have fun finally sipping and painting. No, I wasn’t sipping out of the painted glass at the time. I had to admit to the instructor that yes, I do know how to paint, but it’s still a fun activity.
There are now a number of You Tube videos as well as blog posts about using pool noodles to spray baste a quilt.
I had tried something similar with 2×4 boards, can I just say, this is so much easier.
Can you see how nice and smooth everything is! I try and use as little of the spray glue as possible. I do find that the residue does build up on the needle.
The whole process took maybe half an hour. For a larger quilt, it will take longer, I will need to bring out two tables as well as combine two noodles together. That probably means a trip to the hardware store to get some plumbing connectors.
I was very nervous when I started quilting. Initially, the thread broke. It was Isacord, which many people swear by. I was also using a Superior Threads Top Stitch needle. So that one came out and I replaced the needle with a Schmetz, and the thread with aurifil. Ahhhh, it’s working!
I don’t plan out my quilting ahead of time. Once I did some basic quilting on the birds, I decided to make it appear as if they are standing in grass, with a few feathers and large flowers. I really love quilting feathers.
The real question is, since I’m quilting white on white, will anyone even see the design?
I changed direction for the top, trying to make it look like clouds in the sky. So the long lines are now horizontal instead of vertical.
We shall see, once I wash this I might just end up with a textured background.
I followed the instructions for the largest size quilt. I had to adjust the background so it wouldn’t be too large. Yup, a lot of math was done.
I should have waited until later in the day to take this photo. The white is blinding and the shadows are dark. You get the idea what this top looks like.
My
I am totally in love with this needle turn applique. Sometimes I follow the the designs…
… sometimes I embellish, like here, where I did some more cut-outs in the center as well as applique a contrasting circle on top.
My points are getting sharper and neater. 
My stitches are really becoming invisible.
Some of the blocks are more muted.
The pineapple motif shows up often.
Now I am wondering if I want to combine the small blocks in with the appliqué or just go traditional and make the whole quilt out of the appliqué blocks. We’ll see, I’ll continue to make more blocks and then I’ll make up my mind. I don’t like to quit, and not using the Splendid Sampler blocks feels like quitting. Luckily, I don’t have to decide yet.
I don’t know what I’m doing ‘wrong’, mine come out wonky. Then I see someone else post, and their feathers are straight, they have a large portion of quill showing. Oh well, I guess that when working with curves the results will differ greatly.
At least I’m having fun.
Some things got easier with practice, like the mirror imaging on the pineapples.
Look! I put butterflies on the butterfly! Two small and…
… and one large.
The poppies got all wonky, but then when do two flowers ever looks exactly alike?
Finally the antlers.
It’s that small detail that will set my quilt apart. Now comes the hard part, by doing so I have changed the size of the blocks. I don’t want to use the dimensions of the background as given. The quilt will be too large. I also don’t want to just shrink the background down to fit the original size. So I have to work it out as I go.
The bottom row has the most pieces, so I started there. Looks like the quilt will only be a few inches wider than the original plan.