Quilting a Grateful Heart

Hello all,

Well, last Friday, I shared with you my eventful basting experience with Sarah’s quilt. It was big enough that we had to move the dining room furniture around!

After basting the quilt, I decided that I would attempt “quilting in the hoop”. In this case, that means using an embroidery machine to stitch quilting motifs. I have a Pfaff Creative 2.0 and it worked pretty well! First, I stitched in the ditch around all the blocks. This helps keep the quilt sandwich stable when it is in the hoop. Then, I had to decide which motif(s) to use. I ended up purchasing Anita Goodesign’s Quilter’s Paradise and Quilter’s Feathers CDs and using a number of the motifs. I wanted the quilting to be as much a sampler as the piecing had been, so I chose different motifs for each large block. I ended up settling on standard motifs for 2″ and 4″ squares and 2″ x 12″ strips.Here is the 2″ square.

Here is the 4″ square.

Then, I dove into the deep end and completed my first custom motif in the Grandma’s Fan block. I used a machine motif for the center and then free-motion quilted in the fans.

I quickly learned how to align the motifs (after a couple of false starts!). It is a very cool process, and I can’t wait to show you more. I’ll come back next week and show you more of the blocks.

Until then,

Kathy