Lots of progress has been made on the "sky and branches" prompt from the previous post. Working on the binding now. But in this post I want to get into the guts of the project. (Warning: if you aren't interested in making landscape quilts, you might want to skip this post.)
This is a large landscape, at least for me, roughly 43 x 42 inches, and I knew that all this free-motion quilting would present a weight/drag issue (meaning a neck, shoulder and arm problem) at the sewing machine if I didn't come up with a hack or two. So here's my hack. (Fusible batting tape is a must for this.)
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| All quilted. You can see all my joins here--none are visible on the front. (Click to enlarge.) |
I should start by saying it probably takes less time to do this than to read about it! :)
1. Put the backing fabric aside for now. You are going to quilt the top to the batting only, saving the backing fabric for later (and saving your neck, shoulders and arms a lot of strain). And to further decrease the weight and drag of free motion stitching, you will cut batting pieces into sections, basting the first one to the middle of your quilt top and quilting that area first. However, do not quilt all the way to the batting edges--leave about a 2-inch margin wherever another section will be added. (Tip: On the quilt top, mark your boundaries with a couple of pins to keep from quilting too far in any area.)
2. To add the next section of batting, overlap an edge of the new piece with the unquilted margin of the first piece. With scissors only, carefully (don't nick your quilt top!) cut through both layers of the overlapped batting edges (pull out the trimmings). This will make the edges a perfect match no matter how crooked you cut and they will butt right up against each other.
3. Use fusible batting tape to join the edges, following package instructions and pressing gently; make sure the tape bonds well.
4. Keep quilting from the middle outward, adding batting sections as needed. Once the batting tape is fused, you can quilt right over that area--you won't feel it from the front, and no one will ever know there's a join there.
5. When the quilt top is completely batted and quilted, baste those layers to the backing fabric, using your preferred method of quilt basting. Then just satin-stitch over some of the main contours throughout your quilt top, which will give the landscape a more finished look and will automatically attach the backing fabric. For this I used my walking foot with the feed dogs up and took it slow--no drag.
(If you really want to add more quilting, go for it!)
At this stage, the final details were added to the quilt, facilitating further attachment of the backing fabric.
Next time, the finished quilt. If you got this far, thanks for sticking with it. Please comment if anything is unclear or if you have some ideas to add. Thanks!
Linda
