Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Modernizing the FMQ: Episode 11

Machine Quilting with my Tiara~


I have been having a lot of fun quilting my Modern Farmer's Wife quilt, and I have to say, "I love my Tiara!!!"  Okay, maybe I can calm down now.  ;)

I have so much room for quilting a large quilt with Princess El (short for elephant, because she's huge).  And I set up a lot of tables around me to support the weight of the quilt.  I actually sit in a little U-shaped space. My Koala chair helps a lot because I can set the height for whatever feels good at the moment.


So the first thing I did was try stitching in the ditch with a special ruler (this is the Handi Quilter Versa Tool).


It took way too long and was awkward.  I found that if I put my head really close to the machine that I could see well and stitch in the ditch pretty straight.


It went much faster, but it still took two hours, 1 large bobbin, and 28,300 stitches to stitch in the ditch around all the sashing and cornerstones.

After I stabilized the quilt, I used my Pfaff to zig zag around all the edges.


Then I quilted the sashing and cornerstones with wiggles and X's.


Half of the X was formed when quilting the rows, and the other half when quilting the columns.  This special ruler helped a lot.

Once the X was quilted, I used the Versa Tool to quilt a dogwood flower.


(The little black knob is part of my stitch regulator.  I always keep a finger or two on it while quilting.  Thanks go to Cheetah for taking the the two pictures above.)

I love how the cornerstones look with the sashing.


It took 4, hours, 2.5 bobbins, and 81,400 stitches to quilt all the sashing and cornerstones.

I decided to quilt each block individually using similar designs including:

Orange peel quilting...


More dogwood quilting with the Versa Tool...


Loops...


Straight lines...


and any other combination.  ;)

When I needed a break from the quilting over the weekend, I did the handwork on the binding.  I figured if the edges were all quilted it wouldn't matter if I added the binding before the entire quilt was quilted.  (You can see my binding clips in the upper right hand corner of the picture.)


After 14 hours, 6 more bobbins, and another 118,900 stitches the quilting was finished.  All in all, it took 20 hours, 9.5 bobbins, and 228,600 stitches to quilt this.  That is the longest I have ever spent machine quilting one quilt!  (Although a lot less than the 200+ hours I spent hand quilting a similar sized quilt.)


Here is a sneak peek at the finished quilt.  I am waiting for some better weather and (hopefully) sunshine to take some nice pictures.


Now I want to redecorate my bedroom to match this bright, cheerful quilt.  Hubby has agreed to paint!  :D


Click on the Modernizing the Farmer's Wife Quilt link to go to the introductory post.  It includes links to all of the episodes sharing my ideas for ways to modernize the Farmer's Wife Quilt.  I have included the sizes to rotary cut the enlarged blocks in case anyone else wants to make a modernized farmer's wife quilt similar to mine.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I am linking up with Let's Bee Social and Needle and Thread Thursday.

21 comments:

  1. Just lovely quilt and the quilting you did too. Kudos to you. I'm glad that hubs agreed to repaint your room as this quilt will certainly add a lot of colorful sparks into your master bedroom.

    Jane

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  2. Oh my! I didn't realise your quilt was that big! It looks fabulous on your bed, excellent job! :-)

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  3. Thanks for posting all the stats: hours, bobbins and stitches! Wow, it looks great on your bed and yay for a fresh bedroom look. (I love Behr paint from Home Depot - it's thick enough I usually don't even bother with primer and just go for a light second coat!)

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  4. Beautiful job on all that quilting! Your designs are perfect for those blocks. I love seeing the quilt on your bed. It is so happy and colorful. Nice job!!

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  5. What color is the room going to be? The quilting you did in the sashing adds so much texture to your quilt. Love it. And you were creative in your blocks - so nice! How do you hold the ruler and move the quilt on your machine? I thought it would take 2 hands to move the quilt just like you were on a domestic machine. Great job on your quilt, can't wait to see the whole picture!

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  6. It does take two hands to move the quilt. Grippy things (technical term) on the bottom of the rulers help move the quilt with the ruler. The two pictures my son took show how I hold my hands better. In other pictures I was using one hand to hold the camera. :)

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  7. Of course you need to paint the walls to match that wonderful quilt! You did a great job on the piecing and quilting both! As for how many stitches you put in the quilting, I hope the machione did the counting for you :) You keep impressive stats!

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  8. Well, that was quick! It didn't seem like 20 hours to me. (haha!)I enjoyed seeing your process pictures...good job, Cheetah! Now I am curious about the upcoming paint job. Keep us posted!

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  9. Whoop whoop Jasmine!
    Wonderful finish.... Get those paintbrushes ouT, that quilt deserves a brighter room! 😊
    Esther

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  10. Wow It looks fantastic. A lot of work that was worth the effort.

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  11. Feels like you started this yesterday and finished today! Looks great on the bed and am quite envious of your quilting set up! Looks like you had fun too with this one.

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  12. I just love peaking over your shoulder while you do all that work! What a beautiful quilt!

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  13. Yowzers it turned out just beautiful Jasmine! Your quilting is wonderful. I hope you remembered to stretch so you didn't get shoulder soreness while quilting. So cool you got your DH to agree to paint for you;-)

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  14. LOVE your quilting, Jasmine. Great ideas! Those rulers sure are fabulous. You did a fantastic job and I agree, love the Tiara/Handiqulter.

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  15. Lovely work! http://heathermantz.blogspot.com

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  16. Jasmine, this has turned out just so beautiful! It looks wonderful in your bedroom - what a lovely picture that is! I pinned your quit on Pinterest!

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  17. Lovely quilt. I like your loops and your cornerstones! Last year (2013) I gifted a quilt to my husband's parents and they had already pulled paint chips before we left to return home! It was very flattering. ;) Do you have a color in mind for your bedroom renovation?

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  18. An interesting project and result! I like the color choices, arrangements and quilting.

    And I always enjoy linking modern to history. I saved the link to the whole series and plan to visit later when I have more time.

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  19. Your quilt is so pretty! I love it laid out on the bed. You have done a great job learning FMQ.

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  20. The quilting on this came out great! I had looked at the Versa Tool and wondered if I could use it with my DSM ruler foot. I particularly liked when the demo'd using the notch for the foot to quilt around applique. I think I'm going to have to consider this one again!

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  21. I love seeing it finished and on the bed! I got this round ruler for all my applique quilts I have to quilt.

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