Saturday, September 29, 2007

The Quilting Pattern on the Name-That-Quilt

Are you here to Name That Quilt? That's going on here.


Rebel asked about the quilting pattern I'm using on the Name-That-Quilt quilt. It's basically concentric lines at one inch intervals within some of the shapes of the pattern. Here's what is looks like, kind of, although all of the red in the design makes it kinda difficult to photograph:



I'm pretty happy with how exact I've been able to get the quilting lines. Want to know how I do it?

Painter's tape!


Since the tape is an inch wide, you just stick it to your quilt face in adjoining strips. Then, you sew in between the strips.


I actually finished this stage of the Name-That-Quilt quilting today. The question I'm mulling over now is whether I want to do more quilting on it -- maybe even go in-between those one-inch lines to make concentric shapes 1/2 inch apart -- or whether this much is good.


(In fact, I did more quilting today than any other day, ever. I decided last week that today was going to be breakfast-to-bedtime quilting -- The Quilting Death March, I've been calling it, with my usual impeccable good taste -- and it turns out that you can get a hell of a lot done when you throw a whole day at it. I'll show you what I've been up to in a progress report next weekend.)

4 comments:

Pam said...

It is hard to see the quilting in the picture, but that is such a fabulous idea with the painter tape. You certainly would get the straight lines you wanted and nice and easy to mark each block and then remove and go to the next block. Thanks so much!!

SuBee said...

Man! That's one heckuva tape job! What can you do with duct tape? Great tip tho, much easier than fooling around with pens.
BTW - you've been tagged -
http://pieces-of-time.blogspot.com/

Rebel said...

It is really tough to see the quilting, but I do like the echo of the pattern. And one question about the painters tape - does it leave a residue on your quilt top?

Michael5000 said...

@pam: You are welcome! It certainly wasn't my idea originally. I got it from my brilliant machine quilting instructor, whose name I am totally blanking on. I'll acknowledge her eventually....

@su bee: DON'T TRY IT WITH DUCT TAPE!!! I'm sure you're kidding, but....

Tag answered! : )

@rebel: Hopefully, there won't be a residue problem. Painter's tape is designed to adhere lightly (as opposed to duct tape!), and there's no appearance of any adhesive remaining on the fabric. Whether the chemicals in the tape will badly discolor or disintegrate fabric 20 years down the line, well, there's no way of knowing. I suspect the odds are better than with chemical markers, but who knows.