Quilter’s Finishing School, Autumn Term: Never Mind Free-Motion, Let’s Walk!

Labor Day weekend—that’s what I call a prime holiday for quilting. Aside from the odd barbecue or a last-gasp-of-summer outing with the kids, there aren’t a whole lot of events or expectations. It’s the kind of holiday where I’m stunned to realize I have free-time. This year, in my quest to finish one quilt top per season, I had PLANS for that Labor Day free time: finishing a quilt top I call ‘Maple Gust.’ Read on for my adventures in Quilter’s Finishing School for Autumn.

It was a quick quilt I made within the past couple of years, when I was determined to use up some fabric stash gems. 

The pretty green fabric was purchased maybe 10 years ago at a blowout sale somewhere. I still love the little dancing maple seeds (which I guess are technically called “samaras,” but I grew up calling them “helicopters”). A perfect quilt for Labor Day weekend,  getting me excited for the autumn days ahead!

I’d planned some wind-inspired free-motion, but the more I considered it, the more I wanted something simple and structured, like a very regular grid. Which means a walking foot, and I’m thrilled for that!

So, thread—I bought a small cone of King Tut #992 (a variegated brown) for the top thread. To my delight, the green thread (King Tut #968) I overbought for my Prairie Spring quilt matched the backing perfectly. 

The batting package I had for a throw sized quilt—Warm & Natural—was almost exactly the same size as the quilt top. I know quilt batting should be larger than the quilt, giving you 4” of space around the top, but we’re not working with ‘perfect’ here. We’re working toward ‘done,’ and I am NOT about to cut larger batting down or try to Frankenstein pieces together for the sake of a 4” border that I’ll just trim off later. 

The simplicity of draping the quilt over my work table–instead of crawling around on the kitchen floor–has me wondering why I bother doing bed-sized quilts. The pin-basting goes quickly.

Once I pin-basted the layers, I marked the diagonal stitching line with painter’s tape. 

I like my Juki machine for quilting, so I put that on my worktable, attached the walking foot, and re-familiarized myself with the functions. (Oh, shoot… There’s a thread cutter in the heel of the pedal. I forgot I turn the pedal around so I don’t accidentally activate it. Glad I ‘rediscovered’ that feature early on.)

The grid part went really quickly, and fairly smoothly. I used painter’s tape to mark each line, which were maybe 4-1/2” apart, and had that part done in a morning. (Why don’t I make more throw-sized quilts?!?)

Because I was unwilling to give up the nice stitching I was getting from the walking foot, I combined diamonds and in-the-ditch quilting for the brown patches. I was pleased enough with that.

After that, my plans went sideways. I thought I’d combine some handwork with the machine quilting. I picked out some floss and got my hand stitching supplies out. 

I even practiced a new-to-me hand stitch on an ongoing hand-stitched quilt I have. I watched a very nice YouTube video on the feather stitch, tested it out, and loved it.

Then I tried it on the quilt. It felt wrong, sloppy. What went wrong? The direction I was stitching? 

You know what? This quilt was supposed to be fast and fun, so why not use my other machine with the pretty decorative stitches, to stitch quickly?

I tested my machine stitches on a practice block, and I really liked the look. That would be the simplest approach, I decided.

Nope! The dragging weight of the quilt was too much and the stitch design grew warped, Turning the full quilt under the needle, which I knew would be hard, was even more difficult than I had anticipated. 

So out came the seam ripper. I have no qualms about saying no to something that’s not working, and undoing it. Maybe in the future I’ll try this again, armed with the knowledge of what happens with a large quilt.

Is this quilt complete? No, but maybe it’s ‘done for now.’ I may try a free-motion curlicue in the yellow patches, or revisit the hand-stitching. I could certainly bind it, then add hand-stitched elements as I watch TV or my nieces’ next soccer game. What a pretty romantic thought, hand quilting as yellow leaves and even a few maple seed ‘helicopters’ flutter down around me…

Happy Sewing!

Vanessa

Be sure to check out the other installments of Quilter’s Finishing School: Winter Term, Spring Term, Summer Term.