Lots of Quilting Going On

Mostly, I'm a piecer--spending the majority of my sewing time making tops. They begin to pile up and it's time to quilt them.

With the Heritage Quilters of Huntsville Quilt Show coming up October 11-12, 2019, I had one top that really HAD to get done--my Lifetime Quilt. Read about this quilt HERE.

100" X 100"

It has 12, 800 triangles, 1.25" finished Half Square Triangle units. It is heavy! Thank goodness I have a longarm friend who offered me time on her machine to baste it--there aren't enough safety pins to baste it that way--that process took 3 hours.

Thank goodness for my Bernina Q20 sit down longarm machine--with both extensions in place the table is 76" long which provided plenty of support for this beast while quilting:

This top has been under construction for 3 years. I've known for a while how I planned to quilt it:

Practice block

The back of the practice block

I never planned to stitch in the ditch--that would only show any place where the ditch was "wobbly" and there are a few of those. Using the Line Tamer Ruler, it was a breeze to quilt down the center of each diagonal row. Bottom Line thread in the bobbin, So Fine 50 wt in the top--for those who will ask. Quilters Dream Wool batt, soft and breathable.

Beginning at an outside corner, I just started. Those first rows were really short and it was so easy. The Line Tamer keeps the ruler foot in place and the rows were straight, most of the time.

Of course, each row got longer and longer and there was much squishing and bundling as I approached the middle. I worked on it two hours a day, in one hour increments so as not to hurt myself--the shoulders were sore after an hour.

The first half took 9 hours over 5 days. Then I turned it around and began in the middle, another really LONG row--that middle row! BUT each row got shorter after that and the squishing/bundling was easier so the second half was done in 6 hours.

I love how the simple quilting is exactly what this quilt  needed--here you can see the not-quilted area in the upper right:

 I am 15.5 hours into the binding process now with one side remaining:

Since I was on a quilting roll, I decided to keep going, quilting a gift for my niece Devon who graduated from Harvard in May, 2019. I promised her she would have it before the weather turns cold:

75" x 75" Southern Star

The border still needs to be done, I'll add more quilting in the star itself and there are 3 more white sections to go, but it's coming along nicely and the weather is still hot.

Next week I have to baste one more 75" square quilt and get it done before Houston--looking forward to showing you that one as it gets quilted.

In between quilting these two I pieced a top, because that is what I do. A very scrappy New York Beauty, 42" x 42":

This probably won't get quilted for a while, just get in line and wait your turn...

Let's quilt.

Barbara