A good beginning to a Tuesday
Posted by adesigninmotion on Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
The happy beginning to my quilting week. A bright and cheerful quilt just waiting for me to make some magic! I promised quilt pictures and accompanying albums but hit a snag with the home slideshow. I continue to work on the bugs so you can see what quilters have been giving me to work with.
Reading back over that first paragraph, it sounds like the quilting fairy came and waved her magic want over the quilt and poof - the quilt was loaded and ready to quilt. It is not quite that simple. Unfortunately it does take some time to load the quilt.
I had an interesting question from the owner of the quilt pictured above. She wanted me to look at the quilt and make any suggestions I could that would improve her work. Now I have never been asked to do that before and I am not going to critique someone's work without being asked. But I think that if you, the maker of the quilt top, could see what the long arm quilter goes through to try to get the quilt on the frame straight and without lumps and bumps, you would be surprised. My number one thing on the list of improvements - either iron your quarter of an inch seam allowance open or to the dark fabric side making certain that both sides of the seam lay in the same direction. Second, press your seams and get rid of those pesky threads as you sew - does not seem like such a big job if you get into the habit of clipping the threads as you go. When working with white fabric, you definitely do not want errand thread migrating under the quilt because on the finished quilt they will be unsightly. Lastly, lay the finished quilt top on the floor and see if if lies flat. If the top is not flat on you floor, then that means I have got quite a bit of work working out the fullness of the quilt so that you do no have puckers.
Just a few friendly hints. I do know that nothing made is perfectly and most of the quilts that I work on will be for snuggling with and not hanging in a quilt show to be judged; but I have always thought if you are going to the expense and time of making a quilt top you should pay attention to the details and do the best job that you can. What's that old saying - anything doing is worth doing right : ) Keep that in mind.
Happy Imagining,
Linda
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