back to Desire

"Oh boy. Yikes! Back in September my husband bought me a Baby Lock, my first new sewing machine, as an anniversary gift. When I picked it out, I specifically told the sales gal that I wanted to be able to lower the feed dogs and use a free motion quilting foot. So she sold me a Crafter's Choice and a special foot, and I am just now getting around to trying it out -- and I'm doing it for the first time. Couldn't pick something easy, either -- it's an art quilt with lots of velvet front and back. Man! I had to plug in the foot pedal, since I can't take my hands off the thing for even a second if it's moving, and I'd gotten comfortable with the button control on/off. Anybody have any free-motion tips to share with a novice? It's not going too badly, after all -- I'm using a nice Sulky Blendables thread so the stitching on the front is mercifully buried in velvet -- you just get a sense of depth."

An excerpt from something I just posted over at mycraftivity. I picked that nice plush upholstery velvet in a rose hue for the back of the Desire piece, and inserted some cotton/wool blend batting, so now I'm on my way with the quilting. I don't think I can (or want to) sew on much more applique or embellishment before I quilt it; though beading and soforth will be trickier if I want to avoid knots on the back. But the quilting is important, the lines it will add and the depth, and I can't do that well if I have to veer around all sorts of random objects. I don't think I've ever read any tips on what to do with post-quilting embellishment knots on the back; I suppose the thread can be anchored in the batting, pushed through without passing through the backing and still be stable for a bead etc. I've never tried it though. As with so many other techniques, this will be the first time for me.

But oh baby oh, you should feel the weight of it, and all that velvet. Scrumptious. It weighs a lot for something barely 20x24 inches. I still can't quite picture it finished though -- there's a ton of embroidery etc that I still want to do. I just didn't want to have to quilt over it. Man, it's going to be difficult, if not impossible, to embroider text without pulling the thread through all three layers. What have I gotten myself into? I might have to cope with the threads on the back. Maybe I can find a matching floss...