Wednesday, January 8, 2014

WIP Wednesday ~ The quilting frustrations of a newbie quilter

I managed to get both the Charm School tablerunner and the Cat Quilt spray-basted and ready for quilting yesterday morning.  I really wanted to see my kitties quilted, so I auditioned different threads on the black and white fabrics to see what I liked best ~ the light grey Aurifil thread won the toss.

I really wanted to quilt it like the original in a checkerboard pattern, so that's how I started.  I did two diagonal rows in one direction and one in the opposite direction.  Well ~ after staring at those lines ~ both the stitches looked painfully uneven and the lines were crooked.  And with the light grey on the black fabric background, it was just glaring at me and I decided that the straight lines just would not do.

Soooo ~ I added some wavy lines next to the straight lines and TA-DA!  They might not have been perfect, but they looked SO much better and the unevenness (is that a word?) of the stitches wasn't nearly as noticeable.



Needless to say, I spent last night watching Moonrise Kingdom (which I loved ~ very quirky) and ripping out two rows of straight stitching.  Today, I managed to finish the wavy lines in one direction and, while not perfect, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out!  I did leave the one straight line to use as a guide for the next batch of wavy lines, but that will be ripped out eventually and replaced with the last wave.



Linking up at Freshly Pieced and My Quilt Infatuation.

11 comments:

  1. This looks awesome! The quilting is fun too.

    I need to catch up on my cat faces (I went on holidays in the middle of it, away from my sewing machine). I've been thinking I might use my top to practise FMQ on, but that's a scary thing to think about :D

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  2. Oh, I really wanted to make some cat blocks but had to put my foot down and not start anything new. Your's look great and the wavy lines look awesome too!

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  3. You're so clever. Your wavy lines are perfect!

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  4. Love your wavy quilting - it really adds interest

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  5. The wavy lines look great! I honestly think they give the quilt more interest than the straight lines would have.

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  6. super cute kitties! I love your quilting. It really adds to the whimsical feel of the quilt!

    Thanks a bunch for linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday!

    :) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

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  7. I am doing a happy dance for you, Georgi!!! Your quilting organic wavy lines was a brilliant choice!!!! You go newbie!

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  8. Oh you did such a great job. I love this cat pattern. I hope I get to make it at some point. You are right, the wavy lines do look good.

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  9. Really love the colors you used!

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  10. That is a lovely quilt!! I really like the black background!

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Thanks for stopping by! I love reading your comments. :)