My dear friend, Sheila, is having a grandson around the same time that mine is due. She is my quilting buddy. We go shopping in Atlanta and all over the place for fabric and the latest quilting gadgets. She was the one that traipsed all over Atlanta with me in search of my longarm quilting machine, and even made the special trip to Bowden, Ga. to look at the HQ16 that I actually purchased that day. Anyway, she has been with me through thick and thin in the sewing realm, as well as, personally, and so I told her that I would quilt her grandson's quilt on my new machine. Well, the backing is made of minkee fabric, which is the softest fabric you have ever felt, but very stretchy and slippery. I have heard horror stories of people who have tried to quilt it on their table top sewing machine, as well as their longarms. So, needless to say, I was a little wary of putting it on my machine. After consulting with several people on quilting blogs, as well as the lady who taught me how to use my machine, I finally put that beautiful quilt on my machine today while I was sitting with my sick granddaughter.
(A picture of the backing completely quilted. Not a pucker in sight!!!)
Pinning the backing onto the leaders was actually the hardest part of it all. It stretched so bad that I had to take off both sides and start over. I really was beginning to panic and wondered if I would even be able to complete it. But once I got the minkee on, I felt pretty good about tackling the task at hand.
A close up of the quilting. I just did an overall loops freehand pattern, because everyone I talked with said it wasn't necessary to do a lot of quilting because the fabric would tend to pucker and stretch more.
Here is the beautiful front of the quilt. Made with all pastel batiks. Didn't Sheila do a great job?
Another picture of the beautiful front of the quilt and the quilted loops. I know Sherry, Sheila's daughter will be so proud of this when she presents her with it!!
