thimblebug6000

Thanks Teen....it was a journey! And also a healing process for my friend....

Anael

Oh wow Thimblebug!! That's stunning!! And the quilting!! Like Teen said, sublime!

thimblebug6000

Thanks Teen and Anael! After my friend finished quilting it, I asked her if she would like to gift it to her brother who is on his own.

Anael

OH wow Thimblebug, that's a beautiful and thoughtful gift! Did she accept the offer?

thimblebug6000

Yes, but unfortunately he lives a ferry ride away, and with COVID-19 restrictions, not allowed to travel for pleasure yet. She has other things as well for him, so no way would she be able to mail them.

Anael

It has to wait then. Hopefully one day it will be back to 'norma' whatever that may be.
We're not allowed to travel for pleasure either.

auntjo

I have begun the custom quilting on my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler, 144 - 6" blocks in a king sized quilt on my Tin Lizzy basic no frills quilter. I have finished all the sashing "stitch in the ditch" to hold it in place as I know I will have to take it off the frame for the next quilt I want to finish with a pantograph. Not in a hurry, and know this is going to take me a long while between searching for block patterns that I want to quilt into each block, drawing them out, and figuring out how to get them stitched onto the quilt. I'm very comfortable with pantographs from behind the machine, and ruler work and straight line work goes in nicely, but for the freehand curved lines and designs, I need something to guide my stitching. I'm not sure what to mark with. I do have chalk pencils - they don't work so well. I'm not thrilled with marking with pencil or anything that needs to be washed out as that's not my usual M.O. - but am coming to the conclusion that I need to figure out something. I do have a small chalk marker w/a roller wheel tip that is filled with the white pounce powder and I've been using on my hand quilting project from forever. Seems to work pretty well for darker fabrics. I'm thinking I need to get another to fill with the blue pounce chalk powder and maybe between those two tools, I can mark to my hearts content and basically brush it off. But in the meantime - suggestions from all you experts out there...?? I'm getting way too many bumps and uneven lines for my liking. Here's my 1st five quilted blocks so far.

Anael

Well, considering the blocks are only 6" you're doing an outstanding job. What was the name of one of the blocks...........Rocky Road to Kansas? So a few bumps along the line isn't that bad is it?

I can't come up with anything else besides what you already mentioned. Chalk, pencils, I often use the grey/silver pencil but I find it hard to get rid of the lines in light colored fabrics. Chalk doesn't work for me as I'm quilting on my domestic and move the quilt around a lot. So I'm using frixion pens if any. Not much of a help, I know! Sorry!!

Teen

auntjo...looks really good, so far. That quilting is going to be like remaking the entire quilt. Lol.. Lots of work but will be beautiful.. I ditto Anael....frixion pens is what I use. They last until you iron the lines out. With straight lines, sometimes I just I use painters tape but that would be cumbersome doing so many blocks at a time..

thepolyparrot

I think your quilting looks beautiful and you're going to have so much fun using individual quilting designs for each block.

Your Chaco liner tool is one of my favorites - and yes, blue, yellow and pink would be good additions.

I like my Frixion pens, markers and highlighters. I've never had a trace of them show up after laundering - not even the "ghosting" that shows up after ironing the lines away.

Years ago, I tested the Crayola washable markers and wasn't happy with how poorly they washed out. A few weeks ago, I noticed that everyone seemed to really like them, so I did another test of the Ultra Clean version (or whatever they're called.) I colored heavily on a piece of washed muslin, marked the colors with a Sharpie and ironed the lower half of the test area, really getting it hot and waited a day or two.

It went into the laundry without any pre-treating or bleach and it came out sparkling clean - only the Sharpie labels remained. So I would not hesitate to use those now, either - except for quilts which aren't going to be washed right away - wall-hangings, table runners, etc.

Best of luck!

I am really enjoying all the pictures posted to this thread!