Excuse the wrinkles! This was just pulled out of my sewing room (from under a pile of fabric, in case you can't tell) to show an example of an unfinished quilt. I have yet to sew the yellow spot sashing around the outside - it is cut, and has been sitting in a tray on the end of the ironing board for weeks months. It's a bit wonky in places (though not as bad as I remembered it to be), but I guess, since if I ever finish it, it will be my first quilt, so I can't really afford to be too fussy...
I also have fabric for backing, and for binding (although I haven't cut either of these yet) as well as some wadding. I don't know if it is suitable though. The wadding is bigger than my quilt top so that is a good start. It's poly-fil (R) Traditional Batting that I got from Spotlight and it's 100% polyester. It has a diagram on the side that indicates that the loft is around 1/4 of an inch. It recommends a quilting distance of 2-4" apart.
I also have a walking foot. So far I have used it to make a couple of oven mitts. If I don't do something else with it, that means they were very expensive oven mitts! So I was thinking straight lines?
So anyway, are there any quilters out there that can offer me some advice? Suggestions? Do I have the right wadding? Should I be using wool? I'm planning for it more to be a floor rug I guess than a bed topper, but not really sure.... Can I get away with quilting closer than 2 inches apart?
My first quilt was done with wadding (as advised by my mum, and old style quilter ;) it turned out ok, it was quite fluffy but then I didn't quilt it as I was a complete newbie. I've found with the washing the wadding is starting to bunch in parts & is in desperate need of quilting, so it's currently sitting in the WIP pile awaiting this to happen!
ReplyDeleteI'm probably not helping much with your dilemna - but I'd suggest doing a few practice pieces first and seeing how you go. At the end of the day - it's your first quilt so you should be proud however it turns out (I'm still making mistakes and I'm getting close to double figures of finished quilts now ;) it's all one big learning curve, but terribly addictive!
Good luck!
You can quilt along the sashing lines (or if they are a little wonky about 5mm into the squares) or do diagonal quilting lines making an x in each of the squares. Those are the easiest quilting designs fro beginners that I can think of. If doing diagonals use masking tape or chalk to mark the lines first, and quilt all your lines in the same direction to stop it bunching.
ReplyDeleteUse thin cotton or wool wadding if you want to make it nice and easy.