Friday, January 16, 2015

Photography Class and Propellers (Steam Punk Quilt)

There are many talented photographers in my family but I am not one. They very kindly take photos for me on all occasions. However, with everyone scattered across the country they are rarely on hand.

My youngest sister and I signed up for Ricky Tims' year-long online photography class. It was all her idea. I will learn basic photography skills such as how to do anything fancier than point-and-shoot. Baby Sis can improve hers since the class includes composition and photo editing.

Meanwhile, on the quilting front... I finished all the straight lines on Propellers (the name for my Steam Punk quilt.) Here's a photo of my worst straight line quilting. This block is near the center so was much harder to manage. I tried many methods to get the lines straight: walking foot, marking lines with pen and chalk, darning foot alone, ruler work (without the proper foot) and painters tape. All these methods work very well on a smaller quilt or closer to the edge of this behemoth (it's 116" square.) Just manhandling the quilt under the small throat plate made most of them ineffective closer to the center.

All propeller blades quilted.

I think I'll quilt around the blades next. More or less than the straight lines? Would you use 'swirls and pebbles', stippling, McTavishing or something else? In true Scarlett O'Hara fashion, "I'll think about that tomorrow."

Enjoy the day, Ann

9 comments:

Mystic Quilter said...

Wow - what a size!! Maybe you posted about the size before and I must have missed it,
it's huge, it's also beautiful.

Nicky said...

Wow! That is a giant! I once quilted a big quilt in three sections and joined them quilt as you go style because it was so big but you need to decide that in the beginning of course. I find spirals and other round shapes easier to quilt on my domestic machine especially in the middle of a big quilt. Good luck and remember to take lots of breaks as they are really heavy. Thanks for linking up to #scraptastictueday

Ann said...

Yes, I need reminders to take breaks. I wish I'd thought this through. There are better ways to handle this size: different quilting design, QAYG, or sending to a longarm. Your scrap quilt linkup is a delightful location to find so many different quilters with exciting quilts. Thanks for setting it up.

Linda @ kokaquilts said...

it's looking great, but I can see it's tricky just from the sheer size! I've only ever done straight line quilting, and that's on smaller quilts! Not sure how others manage this. I guess it's a case of just slowly... slowly... a bit at a time, good luck! Linda

Kaja said...

I'm no help, I'm afraid! Maybe Nicky is right about organic shapes being easier on a domestic machine though. You will have built some muscle by the time you finish this :-)

Stephie said...

I have no concept of what 116" looks like, but I'm guessing 2.75m, ish? I wouldn't fancy wrestling that size under my machine, I'd foresee lots of arguments - you're a very brave woman Anne!!! But, it will definitely be worth it, this is going to be spectacular (although you may not have any arms left!).

Cathy said...

I'm in love. Who knew Steam Punk could be so beautiful. I do my quilting on my DSM too or by hand. I'm too lazy to try quilting in little sections like that where you have to start and stop so much. I admire your stamina!

Ann said...

I'm glad you like the quilt. DSM quilting is fun, isn't it? Although I've hit the size limit here. Next time, I'll send something this size out.

Ann said...

It does take some thinking and when I get to the center there's very little room to maneuver. I admire you for hand quilting. My last hand quilt is still languishing by the chair.