Quilting and embroidering and quilting and embroidering and etc. . .

I've been spending a lot of time quilting up the Mabel quilt. And actually making some pretty good progress on it.  I've finished all the straight stitching and have quilted half of the blocks in the center.  The easy blocks, of course.  Here's a picture of one of them:

This is an 8" block and I had a stencil that fit perfectly, so with the help of a water erasable blue pen, I marked each block as I went along, and stitched using a pastel variegated thread from Superior Threads.  

I was actually able to do the FMQ on my "fancy, dancy" mid arm machine that I bought specifically for quilting, but found in the four or so years that I've had it, that the tension is so beastly touchy that all it's good for is piecing and straight line quilting.  To be clear, I absolutely LOVE using the machine for these tasks, but I didn't spend a small fortune for a machine that doesn't do what I bought it to do. I've had to return to my little work horse machine that I've had for 15 to 20 years, which is not a mid arm, to do the FMQ on all my quilts, including the king sized one's I've made. And believe me, it's a workout to maneuver that size quilt on a standard sized sewing machine.

But I've digressed, big time.  On the Mabel quilt, I had a talk with the owner of the sewing shop where I stopped to get the thread for this project.  I bought a 30 wt thread for the top and tried using a 50 weight thread (the kind I use for all my piecing) in the bobbin. I consulted the info I'd got from my machine guy and set the tension as he'd recommended and began on a practice quilt. It was pretty good, but not good enough. So I began lowering the tension even more until I got it just about perfect.  Get this--the default setting for this machine's tension is 4.0, I think, and in order to do the FMQ I lowered it to 2.8!  I've never heard of sewing with this low of a tension, but for quilting with these weight threads, it seems to be working just fine!  So wish me luck as I begin to stitch on the more elaborate, colored blocks.  

I experimented with some free hand designs, and didn't like them much. I punched a bunch of Golden Threads papers and tried one, and didn't like that at all.  I rummaged through all my quilting stencils and couldn't find one that I thought would work, so today, I'm off to the quilt shop in Eau Claire to find one that will be just right.  So wish me more luck with this, okay?

I'm also going to get a wooden hoop and some paint so I can make a frame for this embroidery that I have nearly finished.

It's the same pattern as the one I made for my hand therapist (who seemed to like it very much when I gave it to her last week) except I made the watering can blue instead of gray, and I stitched the flowers in shades of pink and lavender.  I only have the 2 bumblebees to stitch--tonight--and it'll be ready for the frame.  This one is for me to keep.  I think I'll use some lavender essential oil on the cotton batting that goes behind the stitchery so I have some fragrance as well.

Also, in the past few evenings, I finished the embroidery on the little 5" box that I was working on and have it marked and pinned, ready for hand quilting over the next couple of evenings.  Tonight, I go to the Hand Stitching group and will probably take this along to get a start on it.

That's what I've been up to. What about you?  Would love to hear from you as to how your quilting journey is progressing.