I had a bit of a quilting binge this past weekend! The weather was pleasantly cool, which meant I could venture into the sewing room (summers here are cruel). I don’t know how long I’ll be able to do that for, so I’m trying to get as many community quilts quilted as I can before the heat of summer really sets in and it become too hot to quilt (ambient temperature plus the heat of a quilt sitting on your lap…).
I was able to get four of the latest batch of my community quilts quilted. I think I’ve got my system worked out now — it worked well for this weekend, anyhow. I ironed the backing and top while watching TV, then pin basted the quilt on the wide kitchen counter still while watching TV (the TV is on the other side of the family room and I have a good view of it when I need to look up). I then roll the quilt up and put it in the sewing room, ready for quilting. Repeat for the other quilts. I’ve only got enough quilting pins to do about four largish quilts. But ironing and pin basting a batch like this (while watching TV) meant that when it came time to quilt I didn’t have to lose an hour or more PER QUILT doing those tasks. It also meant I got some TV programs I’d recorded ‘watched’. In fact, I ‘watched’ the whole 2.5 hours of the movie, “Angela’s Ashes” plus another two hour-long shows, while doing the ironing and basting. Sitting just watching TV always seems like such a waste of time, so combining time like this was a good move!
The first quilt of this latest batch was a large lap (single bed?) quilt, in blues and reds. It was already a pretty ‘busy’ quilt, so I just did a large allover stipple on it. Because I can stipple quite well these days ( my first efforts five years ago looked like jagged brain coral!), I set my HQ Sweet Sixteen to 70% speed (yes, that’s fast for me — I normally quilt about 35% speed) and off I went. A couple of hours later and this quilt was done.
Threads used:
- Top: Superior Rainbows variegated thread in a blue, reddish tan and cream; 40 wt, color 814
- Bobbin: Wonderfil Deco-Bob pale gray thread; 80 wt, color DB 103
Click on a photo to view it larger.
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 
[…] I already had the thread loaded up for Community Quilt #25, I went straight on to this one as the colours were similar. This was a much smaller quilt (42 x 42 […]
I, also, have found that 35% is a comfortable speed for most quilting….have upped it to 50% but wasn’t as good for me—as yet! Beautiful quilting on this and all the Community Quilts!!!!! Your efforts are appreciated, I am sure!!! D
Oh yes, they are totally appreciated!!