My Thread Head Quilt Along quilt is all finished!!! I am so thrilled!
The quilt is 102" square, the blocks are 9". Good thing there is no sound with this picture, because my DH and #1DS are standing on high stools with their hands over their heads holding this giant quilt up!!
For those who have joined the quilt along - here are some details on how I quilted it.
All the quilting was done on my home sewing machine.
To begin with I used the walking foot to quilt diagonal lines through the black squares, this stabilized the quilt and it made quilting each block easier.
I started by quilting feathers in the parts of the alternating blocks that surrounded the blocks and then quilted each block with a different design (check out some of my older posts to see some blocks as I quilted them).
This block was quilted with a feathered wreath and I think that would have been a great design for all the blocks.
The alternating blocks all ended up looking like this (a design inspired by Carla Barrett - check out her gallery for other design inspiration).
The first border (the one that finishes the diamonds and includes part of the alternating blocks) was quilted with half feather wreaths (I used a Tupperware lid size "X" to mark the center vein).
The two little black borders have swirls quilted in them - also designed by Carla Barret (shown here).
The scrappy squares border was quilted with the walking foot to mimic the the large X's through the quilt.
There are little feathered wreaths in the outer corner blocks (I used the end of the Aurifil thread to mark those).
I used Aurifil #50 for all the quilting (top and bobbin) and a #80 Microtex needle. I used black for the walking foot quilting and the little black borders, but one neutral colour for the rest of the quilting (I didn't want to keep changing thread to match - used a 1300m spool of thread!). The batting is wool (I needed a King Size).
I used my regular set-up for machine quilting and it turned out that is was easier to quilt than I thought it would be.
Here are the links for my free motion feather tutorial (the one with the video) and feathers part II (shows feathered wreaths)
Here is a link for my binding tutorial.
I had been collecting the fabric for this style of quilt for a while and the whole process of making it was much more fun because other people joined me! Thank-you!!!
You still have lots of time to participate in my challenge to finish something with the blocks, so I hope you will send in some pictures (until the end of May 2011).
Now to find a place to store my quilt - it is too big for our double bed (maybe one day we will graduate to a "grown-up" queen size bed! - we will be ready with a quilt LOL).
Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!!♥