Quilting has begun

The sewing desk was cleaned off, the machine cleaned and oiled. New needle and then wind bobbins.

The section was layered and pin basted. It was rolled up and ready to start stitching. Am I sure what quilting design I'm doing? NO! Have no clue, but a lot of ditch stitching was done.

I took it out from under the needle several times to get a feel for how it should look when done. After all this is a scrap utility quilt. Right??? Does it need a lot of definition or just the run of the mill 1/4 inch outline stitching. My husband and I talked about it off and on all afternoon. He finally said you will figure it out.

 

I got up really early this morning and got the last of in the ditch stitching done. Now what do I do? Still don't know that was at 4am. Oh yes I was up at 3:15am and had two cups of coffee by 4:30. I just started out and it is what it is. Right??? Still not sure by 6am if I was on the right track or not.

7am I guess I'm committed at this point. The string part of the blocks are stitched in the shape of diamonds so diamonds in the sashing seemed appropriate. No marking in this part of the quilting. Removing a lot of the pins so the section is getting lighter to handle. I'm trying to stitch as many connecting lines with less starts and stops. About 2/3 of the section has the diamonds done. A few of them I have to go back and stitch only one line of stitching because it is on the outside sashing strips and nothing connected at the corners.

 

This is a dove gray thread so showing detail, but not a harsh white. Now the next dilemma I have to figure out the quilting in the center of the string blocks. In my mind I think I have it figured out, but not sure it will be balanced enough to not cause distortion.

 

I think circles in the 6 inch square of the strings will create interest and some texture. Maybe more than one circle also. Yes it is a lot of work for a utility quilt, but it is practice

since I haven't machine quilted for over a year now. I looked at a CD dimension and it does fit inside of the square perfect. I guess any item that makes the image you want. After I get the sashing stitched I will lay it out on the table and do a ton of marking. I need to find the center of the CD and mark 1/4 coordinates for registration points on the block. Then I can make sure it is centered right.

 

The next couple days are going to be rough for me and my family. Court over custody of the kids is tomorrow morning. Lots of evidence has been brought to light and hopefully the outcome has the best interest of the kids at hand  So you see I'm going to keep busy as best I can.

 

Hope you have a great sewing day. Chris