Carolina Lily completed

On a queen sized bed

Now just to show you what I did in the final stages (probably are lots of better ways to do this mind you!)...

Here it is with the quilting just finished, ready to trim, bind and wash:

I can tell you I felt a little bit worried as I shoved it in my front loading washing machine with a dose of wool wash and turned on the full wash cycle. I wanted to be sure to remove all that pen and I wanted high spin so it would not be too wet afterwards. I added several white colour catchers and here they are afterwards - must have picked up all the orange pen colour!

After the wash it was good incredibly fantastic to see that all the pen marks had disappeared. 

I wanted to square the quilt up before letting it dry on the timber floor for a couple of days. I always hope this will avoid any distortion that could happen if I just hang a new quilt on the line to dry. The squaring just involved pulling the corners and sides a little - so the diagonal corner and parallel side measurements were much the same.  Here it is drying:

Once it was dry I went over it checking for any loosened applique and threads to trim. I found four small lifts in the border vine where the applique thread (a fine silk thread) had come loose. Easily fixed and not bad at all considering the quilt is all hand applique and the poor thing has been dragged this way and that under the sewing machine and then given a few hefty spins in the washing machine. It is a fairly fragile thread - might have been better with something stronger. See the loose applique below?

Checking the back of the quilt here: 

Hanging it on the wall for some photos:

Well that was quite a task for me to quilt on my domestic machine. But I am really happy ( and so relieved) it has turned out with the look and feel I wanted - as close as I could  manage to the traditional hand-quilted look I love. Time for a little happy dance? Thanks for all your encouragement along the way. 

I am wondering if I am game enough now to tackle quilting my Burnt quilt - the finished top has been sitting waiting for quite a while... It is a big quilt (bigger than the Carolina Lily) but, without all that applique, may be easier to quilt. Perhaps a break from quilting first though!

 Remember this?

Something lovely is happening in the garden - signs of Spring! Do you recall that in June I planted a "tulip lasagne" in a pot? It thinks Spring is coming too.

Quilting and more quilting...

That's what I have been doing - hours and hours of it!
So far it is going pretty well thanks to a couple of fold-out tables added around the sewing machine -creating a nice big area to spread and manoeuvre the quilt.

This is how it started - sandwiched with wadding and backing taped to the floor. You can see  all the marking lines and trapunto wadding stitched in the wreaths.

Then pinned together and wadding trimmed back a bit to be manageable. 

The first bit of machine quilting ( and I find it so important to do this bit) is the stitching in the ditch between each block to stabilise the whole quilt. 

Then I free motion quilted an outline close around all the applique - that was really enjoyable as it became three dimensional. 

Yep - notice a mistake in the background grid marking - uneven spacing  - to be corrected

I also quilted the wreaths:

You can see the dissolving thread anchoring the trapunto wadding on the wreath - inside marked line 

Lots of dimension appearing here!

Might regret that plain green backing - shows every stitch!

And now I'm working on the outer border -  half inch parallel lines. This is rather tedious and time- consuming sewing, but not difficult. I am sewing this (with the walking foot) as background quilting "behind" the vine applique (not over the top). This means a lot of drag and sew, which means a lot of threads to be trimmed off front and back - very therapeutic (up to a point ...sigh)

Lots of threads to trim

Looking neater with the threads trimmed:

I will be happy if  when all the pen marking is washed off - I'd like those lines to look a little more subtle!

Once the border lines are done then I'll quilt the 1 inch grid over the rest. It will again be "behind"  the lilies so more threads to trim. 

It is also an angled grid so the quilt will have to be passed on point through the sewing machine. That could be interesting - not done that before! I might not be surfacing for quite a while.... 

Trying to get the quilting right...

I have often regretted not taking enough care with planning/marking the quilting lines before domestic machine quilting my Morrell quilt. I did not mark it at all. I thought that if I quilted each block differently (some cross hatch, some vertical lines, some horizontal lines etc) it would be safe enough to "eye ball" the spacing of quilting lines on the blocks as I went. But ...

...the spacing of lines and cross-hatching is, to say the least, "rustic". It is not parallel or perpendicular in many places where it should be. I love the quilt from a distance but less so close-up!

"random" quilting line spacing - eek!

So - the moral of the story is? ....learn from your mistakes!  I am going to extraordinary lengths (at least for me they are) to make sure the quilting is presentable on my Carolina lily quilt. 

The Carolina lily is a fairly large quilt at 97" by 86" (2.43m by 2.14m) and is going to be awkward under the sewing machine.  I use a Bernina 440 and the throat is not large. So I am going to mark every quilt line beforehand - tedious but am guessing it will be a relief when quilting. 

First I made a block template to mark all the trapunto wreaths - easy to trace through this plain fabric

This was the point at which the size of this quilt gave me a scare. Not panicking, of course, but trying to take control of this quilting project...gulp. 

The original antique quilt shown on the pattern had a grid quilted across the blocks and parallel lines behind the border vine. So that is how I'm doing it too - and hoping it is relatively easy to manage.

Marking the grid on the trapunto blocks

Extending the grid to meet across the Lily blocks

Next - to sew the trapunto wadding behind the 15 wreaths. I showed how I am doing this in previous posts - sewing it by hand with dissolving thread. I'm finding I can only stitch two or three blocks at a time before the hands get sore. So far I have done 8 wreaths. In between that I'm marking the parallel lines on the borders. 

Trapunto wadding already stitched behind some of the wreaths

When the trapunto wadding is all stitched and the quilting lines are all marked then it will be time to sandwich the quilt and pin baste ready for quilting. I am planning on starting the quilting by stitching with the walking foot in the ditch along the seam lines between every block just to stabilise the whole thing. See how careful I am being? 

Wish me luck!

Trapunto update, Baltimore update and a winter break

Comparing machine trapunto samples

Continuing on from last post's trapunto experiments...

I have made a second machine trapunto sample in preparation for quilting my Carolina Lily quilt. 

The first sample had only one layer of bamboo trapunto batting (on right in picture above) - just in the trapunto area. 

The second sample has two layers of the bamboo (on left in picture). 

And at the back is a piece I made in a class years ago - it has a thick wool/poly batting in the trapunto area. All three have the same wool/poly batting in the final sandwich. If you click on the picture to enlarge it might be easier to compare the finish. 

The class sample has the greatest definition but it is too stiff for my liking (though is fine for a wall hanging). I am very happy with the double layer bamboo sample (on the left) as it seems a good compromise - is still reasonably soft and cuddly, and has pretty good definition too. So...am planning on using that method for my quilt. 

Baltimore Album block 24 finished...and suprisingly I did  quite enjoy all those berries. It was almost entirely back-basted needle turn applique. 

I see so many interesting techniques to try on blogs and such great applique finishes (and get a bit green with envy), so decided to give the "Perfect Circles" a go for a few of the berries. Just to see if this might suit me ...and here are the six I made:

Only made six berries this way

I have used them before and think they are a very clever technique but that is as far as I got before skulking off to back-basting and needle turn - might not make such perfect circles my way but I just enjoy needleturn more. Fun trying different methods though.

Am just back from a lovely winter break to the Snowy Mountains of NSW - staying in a house rented with a mixed family group of eight adults - some oldies and some youngies. The non-skiing group (my group) headed off for walks with and without snow shoes. 

Charlotte's Pass - so beautiful up there

Snow shoe walking Charlotte's Pass

Thredbo walk - that's me on the left

Happy stitching till next time. 

Carolina Lily top finished

Adding the borders has turned it quite suddenly into a large quilt! Hope you like it - I am very happy with how it has come together and a bit sad to have finished. The applique handwork on the border was relaxing and wonderful to watch it evolve - bit like a vine growing in the garden !

Now for the quilting plans.
I talked in an earlier post about adding hand trapunto wreaths in the blank squares.

Well -the plan to hand trapunto has sadly been ditched. I got the wool and needles, researched the wonderful work and generous tutorials done by Tim and Janet and had a practise stitching. But the arthritis in my hands did not cooperate. The tugging/gripping action soon became quite painful on a sample block - probably poor technique on my part too. So disappointing - but I have to be realistic - I'd never get through 15 blocks like that.

So ...after a lengthy period of sulking about that...I soldiered on with plans to give machine trapunto a go. 

I want to keep the quilt soft and pliable so am trying to avoid my past experience with machine trapunto where the quilts became rather stiff and boardlike. Clearly I'd have to do a sample block or two to experiment - nuisance, but might be major regrets if I don't!

Marking the wreath and quilt grid on a sample square block of background fabric

I quake at the thought of marking quilts - have had bad experiences with marks not coming out in the past. But I can't see how to easily avoid marking for this quilt. So the practise blocks will also be a good chance to try out some new Berol pens - just to make sure they wash out. 

Trapunto batting pinned under top fabric

I'm experimenting with using some left over soft bamboo batting for the trapunto - because it is so floppy and flexible - might make the trapunto less rigid...who knows ...just a theory. As you can see this is not a tutorial - just showing what I tried :)

The batting needs to be stitched to the wreath (only the wreath will have trapunto work). I used dissolving thread - so it will disappear when the final quilting is done.  I find this thread can be a pain to adjust the sewing machine tension correctly - to avoid the thread constantly breaking. So I just hand stitched this part - just inside the quilting line on the outside outline of the wreath and also on the inner outline - quick and easy.

Hand stitched dissolving thread inside quilt line

Then - the tricky bit - trimming the batting close to these stitches on the back.

Bamboo batting trimmed close to trapunto stitching

Then I made the usual quilt sandwich with the wool/poly batting that I generally use in my quilts.

Next I machine quilted the block. I decided to only quilt a 1" grid outside the wreath as it looked enough to me - lying flat nicely despite the trapunto. 

Machine quilted ready to wash

I put the block in with a normal cold washload of "whites", normal detergent etc. Here it is dry - and Yay! the pen washed out completely - such a relief. And the dissolving thread has gone too. 

I love the look and feel of it - soft  and flexible and as close as I can get to the hand-quilted look (don't start me on how much I wish I could hand quilt! The arthritis is such a pain.)

But I can see that the trapunto is a tad wrinkly - certainly not as defined as is commonly seen. So I will do another block with  more wadding in the wreath and report back soon. Sounds tedious but it really did not take long at all - and such a breeze to make a tiny quilt! 

Carolina Lily and trapunto quilts

Three rows sewn together ( the ugly seams between blocks won't show through once batting layer is in place behind )

Top three rows

Just a reminder - here is the Quiltmania pattern photo of the original quilt :

The original was quilted with wreaths in each of the plain blocks, and cross hatching elsewhere. I'm thinking this might be enhanced with some trapunto in the wreaths. 

I have done a little trapunto in the past. Here is my small sample quilt made in a machine trapunto class a few years ago with Deborah Louie:

I wanted to practise more at the time, so I thought I'd try in a wall quilt. I was very keen on "blended" quilts then (where piecing blends together) but unfortunately all the work of the trapunto doesn't exactly stand out on a blended quilt! It just ... blends.

The blended quilt hanging in my bedroom

 Here are some photos of the quilt in better light that shows the trapunto quilted floral chains:

All that trapunto makes for a rather stiff board of a quilt - nothing cuddly about this one! But it is fine as a wall hanging.

The back of the quilt

That was machine trapunto. A good demonstration of this method is shown in Kathy Wylie's blog. It is a very different process to hand trapunto.

If I was to do machine trapunto on my Carolina Lily quilt I'd need do the first quilting/batting stage now, before the quilt is sandwiched together. Then I'd have to machine quilt all the wreaths again in the second quilting stage, once it was all sandwiched. Sounds like a lot of machine quilting..... ?

So I considered hand trapunto  - have never done this but think it looks lovely. I had a look at Tim Latimer's hand trapunto video - a great demo.  I might do this -  hand threading the yarn into the back of the quilt (on the wreaths) once the machine quilting is finished. The advantage is less time at the machine (which I don't enjoy much) and more time sitting with handwork (which I do enjoy much)! You can also control how much stuffing is used - I don't want it too stiff this time.

Ideally I would hand quilt the whole thing but my arthritis does not allow that. Hopefully it will cooperate with the trapunto yarn threading :)

Back to make more Carolina Lily blocks now.....