Monday, January 13, 2014

Quilting the Pink Chevron Quilt

I've finally got the quilting for the pink chevron quilt completed!  I'm excited to share some pictures of the quilting with you, and I also want to take this moment to talk about another great tool that I got over the holidays.

First, Let's talk tools

I finally invested in a real pair of quilting gloves over the holidays.  This is the first quilt that I've used them on and all I can say is WOW, why oh why did I wait so long!  In my defense, I really didn't think that they would make such a difference.  I'd used a pair of garden gloves before because I'd heard that they were basically the same thing at a much cheaper price.  Wrong!

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While there are many quilting gloves on the market, I bought a pair of Machingers in the small/medium size.  They are reasonably priced at about $11 USD, and they are worth every penny.  They didn't make my hands hot, thread didn't stick to them, and those rubber tips grip the quilt better than anything that I've used before.  I'm really impressed.  

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Honestly, learn from my mistakes and don't spend your money on cheap garden gloves that just don't help you move the quilt around under your domestic machine.  It's better to save up and invest in the right tools from the start. 

Okay, now onto the quilting 

Last week, I talked about doing either an allover pattern or quiting within the chevrons.  Because no thread that I looked at went well with all the colors, I decided to quilt each chevron individually.  This let me shift between a variegated pink, a cream, and a black thread depending on the color of the chevron.
  
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This also let me play around with the quilting a lot more too.  After I stitched each chevron row in the ditch, I got to practice lines, figure 8's, swirls, loops, and flowers.

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I used black thread on the black chevrons because I thought the other colors were too contrasty.  The quilting on the black chevrons does't really show on the front, but I made sure to do something pretty on those rows because the black REALLY shows on the back.

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I thought that black flowers on the back would look better then random black squiggles.  

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I also quilted some inspiring words into one of the chevrons.  They are really subtle, but I think that they add a sweet touch to the quilt.  Just in case you are wondering, the words I wrote are kind, honest, brave, sweet, silly, and lovely.

Now onto the binding and the label!!!

10 comments:

  1. Lovely quilting Karen. I must check out those gloves, like you I have been using gardening gloves but it sounds like I need to change that!

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  2. Beautiful quilting! And yes, I LOVE my machingers too. I like that that you played around with different designs in the quilt. I'm hoping to do something like that with my Starfall quilt. I hope I can do half as well as you have done.

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  3. I love my machingers! I got mine for $8 and they are SO worth it!

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  4. I love that you added quilted words to your project. Makes it special:)

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  5. I can totally agree with you on purchasing the best for your needs in sewing supplies right away. Learning that the hard way in some areas. I don't wear gloves honestly. I do have some though from JAF which are Fons and Porter ones. I have seen on someone else's blog recently how they purchased some Machingers and adore them. hmmmm...food for thought.

    The quilting on your chevron quilt is beautiful!

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  6. Your machine quilting is fabulous. I have heard the quilting gloves are worth it, but I rarely FMQ. I am visiting from We Did It Wed.

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  7. Just beautiful. I love that you quilted words - I have never thought of that, but I really like it. Thanks!

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  8. thanks so much for your tip!!! Maybe I really should try it!

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  9. What a "Sweet" quilt! I love those fabrics. Great job on choosing the designs for each chevron. I also love my Machinger gloves. Couldn't quilt without them! Thanks for sharing - well done!

    http://www.busyneedle.ch

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  10. I love my quilting gloves, good thing you got yourself a pair. Your quilting is really beautiful :)

    -Soma

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