Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Nash Quilt Finished

I'm trying to finish up a few of the quilts I have in progress before the end of the year. I have a couple of projects in the queue for January that I'd like to give my full attention to, but that's hard for me to do with these other things laying around unfinished taking up space in my sewing room. This is the first of six such projects - the Nash Quilt. I blogged about it here previously.

I added two more borders to it so that it is now 36" square, which is still small for my tastes. I don't have enough fabric left to do more and I was ready to be done with it. It will be a charity quilt.


I had fun quilting by it trying out some new-to-me things.


In the first pieced border (the printed border between the two white ones) I practiced taking this design around the corner. I still need some practice but I'm happy with this first attempt. Then I tried the "stacked triangles" design in the second white border. Again, this was a first attempt and as such I'm happy with it. Both of these are from Angela Waters' book "Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Waters."

I had terrible tension issues with this quilt. I believe the problem was the top thread I was using. I could not keep a good tension and it got worse as the spool of thread emptied. I used YLI 40 wt. variegated machine quilting thread in the Jewel color. In the bobbin I used a pre-wound bobbin I got as a sample with my HQ Sweet 16, Hattie. It is a "SuperBOB" wound with The Bottom Line. I used my TOWA to set the tension properly on the bobbin so I'm pretty sure it was not the problem.

A year and a half ago I took all my YLI out of my thread stash and relegated it to hand-sewing only because my old machine, Lily, did not like it. I tried it out on my new Bernina, Bernie, when I got him a little over a year ago and had the same problems. Since enough time had passed and I hadn't tried it on my HQ Sweet 16, I decided to give it another go and had all the same issues with it I had on the other machines. This thread broke repeatedly and every time I checked the tension on the back, which was frequently, it was bad. So I had to stop, adjust everything and then continue. I'm not sure why I didn't just give up after the first few thread breaks, but I didn't.

*sigh*

I will continue to use the YLI I have for hand-sewing, but I'm done using it on my machines for quilting. It seems to do fine going at a regular speed for piecing or with a walking foot, but I can't get this thread to cooperate for free-motion quilting. Which is a shame because it comes in such pretty colors.


6 comments:

West Michigan Quilter said...

Love that quilt. I like how you did the outside borders. I would never have thought of that. i love it. I love also the way you quilted it. Great job. I don't use YLI for the same reason. My machine doesn't like it either. They can be so picky sometimes!

Lies Koster said...

wow, a lot o courage, that you want to finish 6 quilts! This irst one has nice bright colours. I like it! Maybe you have time to see my blog too: huisvlijtigliesje.blogspot.com

The Slow Quilter said...

I love color and your quilt has all the colors I love, and you have done a great job on the quiltting.

Deborah said...

Love the quilt and the quilting.
Good job!!

Beth Paulson said...

I love your quilt...so pretty and I have a hard time on my long arm with thicker threads and trying to get the bobbin thread adjusted...you have 40 wt on top and bottom line is 60 wtand polyester so I wonder if this is the problem. Beth

Mama Pea said...

I think your quilt turned out just great. I think your quilting is looking great! Sorry to hear about the tension issues. I know what you mean about certain brands of thread. I am like that with Sulky and my machine embroidery. I have terrible problems with it, which is too bad, because I like the colors and feel of the thread. And you know how I'm a "thread snob" now for my piecing! :-) I appreciate the information you shared!