Thursday, November 16, 2017

Merry & Bright

I am happy to report that the Quilt Suspension System I wrote about in my last post worked great for this large quilt!  It's amazing how much easier it is to maneuver a large quilt when the bulk of it is held out of the way with the clamps.  This quilt is 84" square, and I quilted it with an all-over freehand holly leaf design.  The quilting is very dense (used 15 bobbins) and it gives the quilt an amazing texture.  My DIL started this quilt about 10 years ago, and finally asked me to finish it for her, just to get it done.  It was a perfect opportunity to practice doing a relatively large quilt, so now I feel ready to start my next challenge - 104" square!  That's only an extra 20", right?  Piece 'o cake!!! (I hope!!!)







Monday, November 6, 2017

Quilt Suspension System

I made another change to my Quilting Setup for my APQS George machine.  I added a Quilt Suspension System behind him.

I have seen several variations of this on the internet, and since George's table is only 24" deep, there's not alot of space for a big quilt behind the machine.  That's fine on a smaller quilt, but this one is 86" square, so I thought this would be a good time to try it out.  It's amazing how much of a difference this makes!  I leave enough slack in the quilt so that it moves freely, and adjust it as I move from one area to the next.

I followed these instructions from Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry at Bryerpatch Studio.  I did not use the upright posts, since I have exposed ceiling joists above me in my basement studio, I just screwed the eye screws directly into the joists.



When this quilt is done, the next one on my list is 104" square, and now I'm confident that this system will reallly help make these big quilts more manageable.

If you are interested in trying a suspension system, but would rather purchase something ready-to-install, Patsy Thompson has two different versions available for purchase in her on-line shop.  Click here for more information.