Working With the Right Tools

After my fiasco with the quilting of our table runner last week, I did some "googleing" on how to avoid puckering when machine quilting. There were several pieces of advice which I made mental note of to try but one proved to be the thing that worked best. Use a walking foot. This is a special foot attachment for sewing machines which helps guide the fabric layers under the needle evenly. Now, I had bought one of these many years ago and had never used it. It is used primarily when you quilt in straight lines. I have lately been quilting free motion and so I use a darning foot for that. Well, once I figured out how to attach the walking foot to my machine and started to quilt with it, I was amazed that I experienced no puckering at all. I was so relieved. The quilting is almost complete. It goes to show you that working with the right tools makes a whole lot of difference in the finished artwork.

You might think that after my Challenge rejection last week, I wouldn't jump into another challenge for a while. That was my plan but the next challenge was on "Art in the Park". I immediately thought of Algonquin Park where I and a group of women have been canoeing for the past two years and are planning to go again this year. I flipped through some of the sketches I had done of the trips and found the sketch I wanted to duplicate in fabric. I also thought that instead of using some new technique (such as tea bags) that I was still trying to figure out, I would use the technique I love to use in my larger quilts. Perhaps if I use something I am familiar with the result will be better and the piece will be accepted into the Challenge. So today I finished designing the pattern and choosing the fabric.

Pattern Design and photo of the sketch. I will be making
the canoe red for more interest.

Fabric choices

This will definitely be a challenge because the finished piece is only allowed to be 8"X8". So some of my fabric pieces are going to be tiny. The project is due in April which will give me some time to complete and I'm already finished the most time-consuming part. Here we go again.