Spirit of the Land - part 4

The Spirit of the Land quilt got finished yesterday and here is how it looks.

Today we had the party for Costa's 50th birthday.  He loved his quilt and decided that he wants to hang it up in his bedroom so I actually still have it and will now attach a hanging sleeve.  He didn't want to use it as a lap quilt and have his kitties sitting or laying on it and leaving fur all over it.  Also he said this way he can look at it and appreciate the beauty and the work that went into it. What a nice sentiment.

Speaking of kitties sitting on quilts, here is Jordie giving the quilt his final test and yes I did take the lint roller to it before I packaged it up :-).

Spirit of the Land - part 3

I have finished the quilting on the Spirit of the Land quilt. Here is what I quilted in the columns of the coin sections. In the two larger columns the patterns are sort of abstract organic leaf shapes and in the narrow one I did acorns.

Then in the border I did trees going around the quilt.  These two pictures were actually taken from the back of the quilt since it was hard to see the brown quilting on the brown border fabric.

I also have an update for you on the Connecting Threads thread that I used for the quilting. As I mentioned in my previous post it did sew nicely, no tension issues, no skipped stitches and the quilting does look great.  The spool of thread looked a little bit linty but nothing significant so I didn't think it was going to be an issue.

Yesterday I was making the binding so I was changing thread, bobbins and going back to my walking foot.  When I went to change the bobbin I noticed a lot of fuzzy stuff so I thought I better take the plate off and have a loot.  I was not happy with what I saw, it looked like a bird had made a nest in there.  So if you are planning on using the Connecting Threads cotton thread make sure that you clean your machine much more often than you normally would with the more expensive threads.  This is a picture of what came out of my bobbin.

So all that is left to get done is attach the binding to the quilt and sew on the label.  I'm right on schedule to get this quilt done for the birthday party on Sunday.

Spirit of the Land - part 2

I finished the stitch in the ditch on the Spirit of the Land quilt today.  Once I finally got started it didn't take all that long and I have to say that I'm so glad that I invested in a stitch in the ditch foot for my sewing machine.  This is what it looks like and I have to tell you it makes it so much easier to follow the lines between two seams on a quilt.  I now hardly veer over onto the other side and I can go at a decent pace. Prior to using this foot, I used the walking foot but it was harder to stay on course.

Here is a sample of what my stitch in the ditch sewing looks like. You will have to click on the picture to be able to see the details.

Now the other thing I promised everyone was a review of what I think of Connecting Threads cotton thread for quilting.  I finished my first row of quilting on this quilt and I have to say I'm please with the results. There was no skipping of stitches while I was quilting, the tension was spot on, and the end result looks great. Two thumbs up!

So I have 2 weeks to get this quilt finished. Getting that cold / flu bug last week didn't help since it put me out of commission right up until this week Thursday, but I'm feeling much better now.  Nothing like a deadline to keep one focused.  Have a great weekend everyone.

UPDATE Mon March 19th:  I have finished the quilting on the coin quilt and will post pictures shortly but I need to give you some more information on the Connecting Threads cotton thread. As I mentioned above it did sew nicely, no tension issues, no skipped sitches and the quilting does look great.  The spool of thread looked a little bit linty but nothing significant so I didn't think it was going to be an issue.

Today I had to make my binding so I was switching thread, bobbins, and going back to my walking foot.  When I went to change the bobbin I noticed a lot of fuzzy stuff so I thought I better take the plate off and have a look.  I was not happy with what I saw, it looked like a bird had made a nest in there. So if you are planning on using the Connecting Threads cotton thread make sure that you clean your machine more often than you normally would with the more expensive threads.

Spirit of the Land - part 1

Well it looks like I have another major birthday coming up.  A friend will be turning 50 at the end of March so I need another quilt to commemorate the occasion.  Fortunately I had all the makings for another coin quilt and since it is an easy pattern I now have the top all done as well as the back put together.  Here is how they look.

I plan to quilt a leaf pattern through the coin sections of the quilt top and a selection of tree silhouettes around the border.

You may be wondering how the sea turtle quilt project is coming along.  I have been struggling with the actual design for the reverse applique.  I came up with one design but I wasn't 100% happy with it. Finally I think I have come up with something that I like and I'm just tweaking it and should be able to share with you shortly.  Also I have two different methods to test out for the curved piecing for the top layer of the reverse applique. I will also let you know how the two methods work and which one I go with.