Getting a Quilt ready for Quilting!

Well I am about to tackle a quilt I made a few months ago using Foundation Paper Piecing, it is extremely vibrant and really needs custom quilting, so it will have to be done on my Bernina Q 20.

This is the quilt. It is called Summer's Night Candy.

You can see what I mean about custom quilting, edge to edge I don't feel will work. I am going to quilt in matching colours as well.

The colours I have from Wonderful Tutti range of 50wt are variegated, but a perfect match colour wise.

The varigated grey on the left side of the photo is for the background. You can see how well the main colours match. The white-ish colour is for the centre blocks only that have a white section. It is variegated as well with a bit of grey/brown.

The grey on the right side is for the bobbin. As much as the backing fabric is black with white writing, I don't want the bobbin thread showing through on the coloured panels, so I have opted for grey for the bobbin to minimise this possible issue. Will see how it goes on the first block.

I have used just about every pin I have preparing this quilt! I only pin my quilts these days. When I first started many years ago, I pinned and hand tacked, but then I was also hand quilting....... I moved onto light basting glue and pins and now I really only need pins. That is mainly experience, I have quilting many many quilts on my Q 20 and it has a very wide flat bed, so I have plenty of room to layout the quilt without it bunching. Everyone has their own favourite technique and you will or have developed your own.

When pinning though I do use a lot of pins (depending on the size of the quilt) and I pin strategically with 2 things in mind. Firstly where it needs to be pinned to hold the quilt together and reduce possible movement, and secondly, I try and pin in a consistent pattern/placement so I know where they are! It is very easy, especially with free motion quilting to forget your pins.................. you do not want to sew over one!

Quilting this block is going to be very interesting. I am going to shadow quilt it, as I call it. 1/4" in from the seam, around each coloured and white section. I will shadow quilt around the outside of the shape in the grey for the background. What I will do in the larger black spaces is yet to be decided.......

When I prepare a quilt for sandwiching, I certainly iron the backing to avoid creases from being on a bolt and I iron the quilt top to ensure every join is nice and flat and there are no creases or wrinkles. I don't have a huge table for laying out the quilt and I can't use the floor, so I use my table on wheels, very versatile, has travelled many kilometres with me as I have had it for many years....... I drape the backing, wadding and position the quilt top. I use weights to hold in position while I start the pinning process, making sure I smooth the three layers when ever I move the quilt. It can be a slow process, but so important, you don't want lumps or bumps appearing. When the quilt is pinned I roll (or fold) the quilt ready to move to the quilting machine.

Now the fun begins!!!!!

The first thing I do after this is give my Q20 a clean and oil and I prepare at least two bobbins. I really don't like running out of bobbin thread. The Q20 bobbin counter/alert is quite accurate and flashes a red light when you get below 20% bobbin left. When I start using the second bobbin, I check how much quilting I think I have left and may wind a third bobbin.

With this quilt I will be starting with the centre blocks. A change from my normal process. Generally I quilt from left to right, starting around the middle of the quilt (where I have folded it) and work across and down the quilt. Depending on the quilting design, I will then turn the quilt around (basically upside down) and quilt left to right, across and down the remainder of the quilt.

With this quilt though, because it will be so customised and there will be a lot of colour changes, I am going to quilt the four centre blocks first, then the two above and two below the centre. That will leave the four either side to do as separate panels. I am hoping this also helps with the 'handling', it is quite a large quilt and I find them difficult to manoeuvre, even on the large table I have with the Q20 - need to do more strength training with my arms!

I'll post photos when I have done some......... or all of the quilting.