May 02 16
Ruler Work Fun and a Great Product
I spent some time quilting away on this quilt over the last 3 days and loved every second of it. I still have a long way to go, but I made some good headway. All designs were created by using basic arc rulers to create the bones or framework of the design, and these were then filled in with regular free motion quilting. Here is a better look at the center section:
The center block is a piece of hand dyed cotton sateen and it’s been so long since I quilted a large expanse of this fabric that I’s forgotten just how yummy this stuff is to quilt. It’s so soft and has a light sheen to it, so once you quilt it, it throws off incredible shadows and really creates a lovely texture. More center shots:
I can’t quilt for the next several days which is killing me, but in truth, it’s better that I can’t “have at it” because I need some time to ponder my next moves inside that center section. The outer border came out nicely and I was surprised how quickly that border stitched out:
This was all quilted on my Babylock Destiny using the Westalee ruler foot. I have come to love that foot! A couple more pics:
A friend of mine wondered why those machine embroidery applique bird borders layed so flat and it was because of a product I used to stabilize the fabric blocks before I did the MEA. Normally, I fuse a layer of lightweight interfacing to the backside of the block but this time, I used Sullivan’s Fabric Stabilizing Spray. This stuff works great and is much less expensive than interfacing. We made a short video showing how I use it if you are interested:
Thanks for sharing as this is a new to me product. I have one question, do you still leave the stabilizer in the interior is the embroidery designs. I usually tear/remove all the stabilizer when using embroidery designs. Thanks
Thank you for sharing, will have to try and find. Love your quilt
Since this is water soluble, I assume this would NOT be what you want to use to stabilize any quilt that will be washed. It seems that it would all wash out and leave things somewhat puckered??
On the other hand it sounds like it would be ideal to stabilize fabric to be used for die cutters – nice stable fabric to run through the cutter but soft again once it washes out after the piece is sewed down.
I would say “dry clean only”.
We only dry clean all our hand made quilts. The main reason is no one can remember which quilt has what on or in it. Dry cleaning is inexpensive after the thousands of hours of time and mental exercises to make the quilt.