Monday, April 15, 2013

Progress Report on Tillie's Treasure Quilt

With the arrival of Spring, my time became split between inside and outside, so the time I've been able to spend on this quilt was cut in half. However, I've continued to make progress that I thought I'd post today after finishing the main top.

I just finished combining the two halves of this queen-size quilt into the one 12X12 block main top. Every inch of the quilting, sewing blocks together and sewing the two halves together was done on my W&G treadle. I'll have to do some hand work on the back side to further secure the quilting tails and joined seams, but that can wait until I get the borders on and finished.

Here's a photo of the completed quilted top...
Main top of quilt. Has been completely quilted at this point.
Only the borders and binding remain to be done

I am so far very pleased with how this quilt is turning out. It is FAR from perfect in terms of my quilting skills. I'm a beginner and not much of a perfectionist. I'm making this quilt to be used. I feel very satisfied that this is a very sturdy quilt and will hold up to daily use well. I double stitched the joined seam blocks and halves to add strength.

What I have learned up to this point:
  • I WILL piece, join and quilt with the W&G machine as often as I can.
  • I WILL NOT quilt a large project on a W&G again, because the "harp" opening is just too small to wrestle a large project through to quilt in straight lines. The halves were not too bad, but finishing the quilting down the center seam with the whole top together was quite a battle
  • I WILL straight-stitch quilt a small project with the W&G's.
  • I WILL use my W&G's to sew just about anything and as often as I can. LOVE THEM!!