A Little Quilting Goin’ On

This past week I finished my Carpenters Star quilt top.

As you can see my Design Wall is behind a lot of other things so getting a straight shot of this top is not going to happen.  (and note that the Dragon is lying in wait right in front, impatiently waiting to get his home).

With that completed it was time to get my Color Palette Challenge piece on the frame and quilted.  I had been having trouble with the stitch regulator but Sunday it worked perfectly and we went to town.

Well, before that I had to figure out how to use my bobbin winder.  I have had my HQ for 6 years and have never been able to make this thing work.  About 6 months ago I finally bought a dimmer switch to attempt to regulate the speed and I also bought bobbins with holes on the sides.  But I never had tried to use either.  However, when I went to start quilting I found I had no prewound bobbins that would work with my backing so I had to get this out and see what would happen.  And low and behold, it worked GREAT!  And to add to that, I used Maxi-Lock thread in the bobbin for the first time: also worked great. 

 I decided on a basket weave pattern for the borders.  I saw this on one of Ebony’s YouTube videos (LoveBug Studios).  She used it for sashing but I thought it would look great in these little squares.

And this is how I quilted the bananas.  My intent was to practice quilting with control but that control thing seems to be hit and/or miss with me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got the two placemats quilted….

And the table runner quilted, too.  Of course, they were all on the same backing fabric so were quilted as one quilt.  I still need to cut them apart, square them, and bind them, but that is for another day.

 

 

 

 

 I love that despite my control issues, the quilting looks really good or just how I wanted it to look.

And I love all the texture.  I tend to like a lot of close quilting so this fabric was just perfect for me.

On my quilting breaks I started reading the instructions for Carol Doak’s new BOM.  I do enjoy paper piecing but I have never cut the fabric the way she teaches.  So I decided that I would try it her way, since she is the expert and all, and see if it would make the job easier.  Later this morning I will cut the fabric for the first block and see how it goes.

That is I will do that right after I start reading all the blogs that have linked up with Design Wall Monday.