I’ve made a small prayer mat quilt top. I appliqued clam shells onto a background and I’ve sandwiched and basted it ready for quilting.
I used some YLI basting thread which my lovely friend Sylvia sent me from the States. It’s the first time I’ve used it and I much prefer it to the white Perle 8 that Sharon Schamber recommends and that I had been using.
Here it is all basted and ready to go.
Basted and ready for quilting
Originally I had planned to send it out for quilting and got a great quote of $25 for doing it as it’s so small. However, as it’s a gift I decided I wanted to quilt it myself and I opted for hand quilting. Hence the purchase of the Sulky Blendables. Hmmm… It was much harder than I had thought it would be because the clam shells are appliqued and because the Japanese fabric I chose for the backing is thick and stiff. It requires almost super human effort to quilt even with large decorative stitches.
Some of the hand quilting
Decisions, decisions…
Then I thought maybe I should machine quilt it and I went through the hand quilting vs machine quilting debate in my head! After much thought I decided to do both. I plan to machine quilt it and then to have some hand quilting as a decorative additon. So today I have been machining diagonals across it and hopefully tomorrow I can finish it and then try to complete a little more hand quilting and then bind it.
Some of the machine quilting
A lesson learned
As always with these things there is a lesson to be learned. The one I learned is that there is always a catch. Whatever quick, easy, time or labour-saving method you come up with somewhere along the line you get called to account. Certainly making this clam shell quilt was easier using applique than English Paper Piecing the catch though is that it is harder to quilt because it adds a whole other layer of fabric to quilt through.
Have you tried using one of the rubber finger tips they sell at newsagents on your index finger to help pull the needle through? It makes a huge difference. It’s looking lovely and It has some beautiful fabrics in it.
Hi Janet
I use a silicon finger tip which is much the same as you have mentioned. However even with that and even with a small piece of rubber to pull the needle through it is hard. I guess a 12wt thread and four layers is too much to manage easily.
Munaiba
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And I imagine you now think the $25 to hand quilt the piece would have been a bargain!
LOL,
MaggieB
Hi Maggie
It was $25 for all over edge to edge machine quilting and I did think it was a great deal. That’s not why I chose not to do it. It was because it was a present and I wanted it to be made by me from beginning to end.
Cheers
Munaiba
It’s lovely, Munaiba. I think the recipient will consider themselves to be very lucky.
Hi Munaiba,
I understand your problems. I bought background fabric, on sale, for applique. It was only when I washed it & went to iron it that I realized both were batiks. So into the stash. No way am I quilting through batiks.
One thing to think about when doing hand embroidery is the needle. The only type of needle I use is a chenille. These look like tapestry needles but are pointed not blunt. They do a good job of piercing the fabric & with the long eyes there’s no drag/stress on the thread.
Hi Doris
Thanks for the advice. I did actually use a Chenille needle but the head proved to be the problem. It is so big it makes it even harder to pull through all the layers.
Munaiba
I agree with you about the chenille needle. I recently used one to do some quilting with perle and to get that eye through layers of fabric and batting was a real chore, though I was using perle 5. I’ve just bought perle 8 and Ingrid recommended Piecemakers embroidery needles, size 7. Will let you know how I go.
Thanks Kate, I’d be interested to know. My fingers are growing muscles!!!