Exercising with my Quilt aka Machine Quilting

As many of you know, I have been machine quilting this quilt. The center panel has been completely stitched in the ditch. However, since I have been keeping up with the Free Motion Quilt Challenge and checking in on Leah Day, I decided I should do more. Also, after going to MQX this past weekend, I thought I should push myself.

The hard part is deciding just what to do since each block is different. The center panel is quite large and rather hard to access. I have a Babylock Quest which is really just a domestic sewing machine. It's supposed to have a wider area under the arm to make it easier for machine quilting. It certainly didn't feel that way today!

I had bought this book years ago at a quilt show. It came with a panel that you could use to practice some of the motifs and designs found inside the book. This book is great! It has blocks inside with various ways of quilting. It also shows you how to divide your block and the different types of quilting you could try. Since my center is a pinwheel, I looked at the examples they had. I really loved one but since I had already stitched in the ditch, I didn't think it would look good. I decided on some patterns using straight lines.

This is rather difficult to see but I drew some lines using a yellow pastel chalk. I have some parallel lines drawn in the triangle and a design in the kite shaped piece. It was very easy to see while I was sewing. The hard part was maneuvering my quilt. I had to turn it so many times! If something was around my sewing table, the quilt would pick it up and fling it. I really felt like I was working out! My cheeks got all red and my heart was racing. I'm hoping I lost a few pounds but I tend to doubt it!

Anyways, this is how it turned out! I like it! Not sure it was worth the sweat but it's a learning experience and I like how it looks.

Here's the back. No puckers which is always nice. It feels nice to touch it. I love the way a quilt feels once it's been quilted! I know, weird, oh well!

I'm trying to decide how to quilt the triangles in the center panel. That's the next step. I'll be consulting my trusty Skillbuilder book!! Even though this isn't easy, I really do love doing this. It's nice to see your hard work paying off. I'm also working on my quilt guild's mystery quilt. I'll show you when I'm done this month's installment. I have 5 more rows left to sew.