Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Quilting my Magic Carpet Quilt


I am still working on my Magic Carpet quilt which I pattern tested for Christina Cameli.  I am calling mine "Floating" because I love how the blocks really float with the extra border.  (For more information on how I altered her pattern, see this post.)


It is coming along slowly but surely.  I am custom quilting it with a different design in each "square."  I have decided to use a lot of designs from her two books.  (With some other personal favorites added in.)


The first thing I did was go through Step-by-Step Free-Motion Quilting and draw every single design.  (More than 80).  I drew each in about a 4.5 inch area.  Because the designs in her book build off of the same basic shapes, I found that the more of them I drew the easier they all became.


I believe that it helps to draw your quilting designs the same scale you would quilt them, so I sectioned off areas on my white board the same size as my blocks with painter's tape.  I draw designs on my whiteboard before quilting them.


In the lower left section you can see a leafy design, which I then quilted.


Drawing on paper (all at once), then drawing a design on the whiteboard immediately before quilting helped a lot.  But for some of the more familiar designs, I have skipped drawing on the whiteboard for the sake of time.  I estimate there will be about 18 hours of free-motion-quilting on this quilt.  It took five hours to quilt square spirals in all of the black areas, and each column is taking about an hour.  I am having to take more breaks while quilting, because I am feeling it more in my shoulders on this quilt.  I wonder if that is because I am quilting more densely than I normally do.  But I am loving how it is turning out.

This is the first big quilt I have quilted on my machine since it was serviced, and sadly there was black grease on the needle bar which I didn't see.  Some of it ended up on my quilt.  I tested Zout (which is supposed to be good for grease) on a scrap to see if the grease would wash out , but it only lightened it.  Do you have any suggestions?


I have more of this pink fabric, so I might just unpick it and replace it.  A big thanks goes to Cheetah who figured out what the black stuff was.  I have cleaned off my needle bar and now know to check it to prevent further grease spots.

I hope to have this finished in time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival starting next week.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the fun parties on my sidebar.  There is something fun for every day of the week.

24 comments:

  1. WoW! Incredible quilting, Jasmine. So sad about the grease. You know, they have that grandma's spot remover at the quilt stores that says it will take out anything. I wonder if that would help. Don't pick it out too quickly! I agree, custom quilting definitely slows you down. But what a wonderful quilt!

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  2. Great tip about using a white board for practicing drawing out the FMQin pattherns, too. Bummer about the grease; I don't have any great recommendations, but I hope you don't have to unpick it!

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  3. Try Dawn dish soap - the blue one. It has worked for me in the past though try it on a scrap piece first.

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  4. How scarY to get a mark on the quilt. I don't know how to fix that. Sorry!
    I was wondering how the machine was working for you. I have the sweet sixteen/tiara on my wishlist. I am looking for reviews on the machine by quilters who use it a lot.
    Maybe you could give a little info on how much maintance it needs and maybe on the things that you don't like about the mahcine.
    Thank you!
    Esther
    esthersipatchandquilt at yahoo dot com

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  5. I use a white board in my quilting studio too! Sorry about the grease. I have no tricks for getting that spot out. Bummer!

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  6. The quilting is so good! Looks like fun to work on too. I second the Dawn dish soap--use a tiny bit with some water on an old toothbrush and scrub gently. The quilt I'm working on now is white (a banner for the local quilt guild) and has collected all sorts of grease-dust from my machine and some stray chocolate! Ugh I hate white quilts, but when I'm done I'll be using some Dawn and a toothbrush. Hope it works for you!

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  7. so sorry about th grease Jasmine....its a tough one!
    I love that quilt though,perfect for sample quilting!!!

    How often do you service your Tiara? Mine is two years old, and hasn't been done yet. I don't use it a lot since I hand quilt, but......

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  8. Wow, Jasmine! I loved the top when you first shared it, but with all that custom quilting it is going to be stunning! I hope you can get the grease out.

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  9. Your quilting is simply amazing!

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  10. I love your quilting! What a good idea to use a white board, too.

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  11. Oh I'm sorry that grease got on your beautiful quilt! I hope you don't have to unpick...

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  12. The quilting is gorgeous, as usual. This is going to be such an awesome quilt. As far as the grease, I am sure it will be hardly noticeable once it is washed a few times.

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  13. Oh no! That grease mark stinks! I don't have specialized grease advice, but I've used shout spray to get marks out of fabric and clothes before. You have to wash it out after though.

    Hopefully you can get the stain out without unpicking, it's a lovely quilt.

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  14. It looks fabulous!

    So sad about the grease, hopefully you will be able to fix it. Good luck!

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  15. It's going to be gorgeous! Yes I think we tend to tense up more when doing denser designs.

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  16. I third the Dawn recommendation :) It has always worked for me for grease/oil based stains. Testing is a good idea (I've never had an issue) and I'd also let it sit for a good hour and let it do its thing.

    This quilt is fabulous! Your choice of color placement is spot on and the quilting is awesome as usual! :) The white board idea is great, I have done the same on occasion but need to do it more often!

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  17. You are doing such a great job custom quilting Floating! Jasmine, I love your tip about the white board and drawing the design at the same size you will be quilting it. I practice Christina's designs on paper and in a doodle book my daughter made for me.
    Would Oxyclean get the grease out? We have good luck with that. It might help to get a piece of the fabric and put black grease stains on it at intervals and test several solutions.

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  18. What wonderful quilting, just a beautiful job! I fourth the dawn recommendation, though on my most recent quilt, I had a black grease stain on a champagne colored fabric, which I was loath to take apart and replace. The dawn only lightened the stain this time, though it has worked for me in the past. It was rectangular piece so I machine appliquéd over the original piece instead of replacing it. As I was straight line quilting, it fit in perfectly. BTW, I have both of those Christina Cameli books and am just beginning to practice her quilting patterns. I am using the cover from step by step for a quilt right now.

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  19. For grease spot removal I use Dawn Dish soap and have used Lestoil in the past too. The greatest tip is do not heat set it. If you do it'll be there forever! Wash the spot to remove and rinse then let it air dry with out the sun rays on it to make sure it's totally gone. Re wash if necessary. Zout and Grandmas spot remover are nice products too.

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  20. Awesome!--both your quilt, and the product to remove your grease stain. Awesome is a yellow liquid, $1/spray bottle, sold at the various dollar stores. It has never harmed my fabric, works even on on grease stains that have been laundered, dried and left to sit for years. Also works on set-in red wine stains. Cwoosley12@yahoo.com

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  21. Such beautiful quilting! I have only used dish soap, as a lot of your readers are recommending, for grease. I hope it works because your quilt is looking so lovely. I love seeing these designs in your hand.

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  22. Oh my gosh... your quilting on this is AMAZING! And I only wish I had the magic suggestion for the grease spot. Ouch.

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  23. I had the same thing on my janome a fat grease spot - so tormenting. short of washing the whole thing I have no idea! Interested to hear what you discover and reading all the comments! Beautiful quilting as always!

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  24. Norwex has a cloth with something in it that got the grease out of my carpet. I had tried all kinds of things to get it out and we took the cloth wet it and then just gently rubbed it on the spot for about 5 min. It is gone. You can go to Norwex.biz and check it out. Use the any cloth with baclock

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