LOG CABIN QUILTED!

Well, ladies, I am finished quilting my log cabin quilt!!!  I still need to bind it, but that will be easy.  As you might remember, I was having problems with my sewing machine and took it to be adjusted once and then took it back for a second look because I was still having problems.  Luckily for me, Elaine was having issues with her Janome machine at the same time.  We emailed back and forth several times and I even sent her pictures of what my sewing machine was doing.  This isn't the first time she has helped me.  She was my inspiration to get started quilting my own quilts with FMQ (free motion quilting) probably back in 2010.  Anyway, she sent me an email with some pointers and strangely enough, leaving the feed dogs UP with the stitch length set to 0 while FMQing is the way to go.  I also remembered something from watching one of Leah Day's videos and that was to use Magic Bobbin Washers under the bobbin.  I had some, but had forgotten about it.  By doing these things, my problem is solved and I have been able to quilt with confidence again.

It is so frustrating when the machine puts a "rats nest" on the bottom of the quilt.  I still have to go back and fix some of those.

Rat's nest to fix

I quilted the whole quilt with hooked feathers without marking the top in any way.  I quilted the right side of the feather following the light or dark diamond shape and when I got to where I started I switched to the left side and followed that around.  When I quilt hooked feathers, they aren't necessarily real even, but they look good anyway.   I try to stay within that color section, but if there is quilting that extends over from the dark section I can just make the feather smaller or larger as the case might be.  It's very forgiving and with a busyness of the fabric, it's not noticeable.

I started piecing this quilt sometime in early 2012 and worked on it a lot in our camper while we were on trips.  The inspiration for it came to me while visiting Beth in the Chicago area and she took me to several quilt shops.  Click on her name for the post I did in 2011 and if you scroll down you will see a log cabin quilt in one of the shops.

Here's a picture of the quilt kind of spread out on the couch with DH holding part of it up.

I had a very pleasant surprise this week when Quilting Babcia called me and wanted to meet me for coffee.  I had known that she was coming to town for a visit from New York, where she had moved to last year.  We met at a coffee shop about 5 minutes from my home and sipped coffee while catching up on this past year of her moving to New York and me getting settled in Oregon, then went across the street to the local quilt shop.  We had originally met in 2013 when I won a giveaway from her and since we were visiting our son who lives near where she lived at that time, we met in person for the first time.

I just checked out Lori's final episode for here quilt-a-long.  I will sew that together today!