Enjoying the Process: Small Table, Big Quilt

Inspired by so many blogs I visit, I bought a new camera and am taking the time to take photos as I work, rather than posting finished projects and telling you about them.

The first project was the quilting of my brother's wedding quilt. This was a slightly larger than queen-size top, made 96" square to have enough drop for a large mattress. I have a cutting table but it's set up in my bedroom/office/studio where I can only raise one leaf. It's crammed in tightly enough that moving it to a larger area is a nuisance. So, I pin-baste my quilts on the tiny, cherry kitchen table using Sharon Schamber's board method.

Now, Sharon says to be sure that your boards are 10" longer than your quilt back, and I learned why. The ends beyond the board don't roll properly, and I ended up with a ginormous fold in the center of the back. I had to unpin 1/3 of the quilt and re-baste! (And as I'm typing this with Sharon's video playing in the background, I hear Sharon saying she will never use safety pins...hmm. Maybe I'll try thread basting on the next quilt.)

 I found that using the shorter boards allowed me to baste the center of the quilt properly. Next time I'll bast the center then turn the sandwich when done and baste the sides using the weight of the quilt to help stretch. We'll see how that works!

So nice to see no folds on the back after pinning!

 I decided to quilt the white areas with white thread and the blue with blue, using a meandering vine with heart shape leaves. If you click on the photo, you can see the hearts. I love my new camera!

 My green cheek conure gets lonely in the bedroom when I'm in the front of the house, so he and his cage come out to watch me work. I imagine the quilt would have taken a few hours less time if I hadn't gotten distracted with the camera. Say hello, Jasper!

As I quilt, I smoosh and stash the quilt sandwich around on the table, my lap, my shoulder, to keep the weight off the section I am working on. As this shot shows, this quilt dwarfed my little table. But with the Juki's longer neck it's easy for me to work in quarters and keep the stitching even.

I didn't get a photo of the finished quilt as it would have been the same as this one of the top - it's taller than my walls so I can't get the whole thing in one shot. The pattern is Past and Present from Scrap Basket Surprises by Kim Brackett. Since my brother just married a woman he dated in high school, I thought the name was perfect!

Now it's time to get back to the other blue wedding quilt:

Judy Neimeyer's Wedding star, which is now a "several months past the first anniversary" quilt for my daughter and her husband!