Mr. Darcy's Adventure Continues With Another Quilt

 The holidays are fast approaching, and I've been super-busy trying to get through all the stuff I committed to doing before the year is up. I am still determined to get all the 2009 UFOs off my list & not carry them into the new year, but I also promised to get a few things done for customers & for myself!

First, let's talk about poor, neglected Mr. Darcy.  He's been out of commission nearly since I came back from Quilt Market in mid-November.  You'll recall his arms & brain were sent back to Utah before Thanksgiving.  I loaded a quilt in the frame in anticipation of his health being restored.  Well, at the end of November, his parts came back, and after I reinstalled them, we found out that his right eye (lights) had been put out.  So HQ sent me another set of arms while I continued to work with him half blind, and BOY!!!  Was he ever upset or what!!!  It took me hours to work through tension issues, breaking thread, picking out stitches, and get him to work joyfully.  The quilt I was working on was 64" square, and I paid for every last inch of it.

It was another of my experiments in free-motion quilting, using a 40 wt. YLI cotton thread on top & So Fine on the bottom.  The YLI thread in the color I had only comes on spools, and I found it really, really difficult to balance the tension on the horizontal spool holder.  Sometimes, it would spin loose and mess up the tension, so I'd adjust it again, then it would spin tightly and break the thread.  I had a thought to use the cone holder and he HATED that, giving me loopies for the first time.  Loopies would look cool except for the fact that it signals a horrible problem!

I changed needles, changed bobbins, used my TOWA bobbin gauge, rethreaded, oiled, cleaned... and finally got to the last border.  Yes, there are some tension problems on the back, but considering the problems I was having they are pretty mild in comparison!  I also have to say... were it not for Mr. Darcy... this quilt would probably have sat for years, not getting quilted.  It's one of those quilts that borders on being too big for my domestic machine.

I free-handed the outside border, with flowers, leaves, and an echoed swirl:

I used a variegated thread, so this shows up pretty well until the color changes to purple, then you can't see it anymore. On the sashing, I freehanded another design, which is just loose tassels.  The blocks themselves were a little challenging.  At first I was going to draw in grass & tulips and all sorts of sprays, but when I did about 1/4 of one block, I hated it.  So I ripped it all out and started over. I feel bad for that because one of my friends was at my house & she stayed with me for almost an hour watching me practice those tulips with a marker & giving me input!

I like the new design better - here's a shot of it from the front:


The back is pieced from leftover fabric, but I found a spot on the back that seems to show off the quilting better:


I think it turned out pretty cool, even though it took me a lot longer than it should have.  I'm not so crazy about my choice of thread now that it's on here (I could have gone with a solid green on the front & I think it would have been just as nice.)  The batting is wool.  It's my first time using wool batting, but I'm not going to say whether I like it or not.  I had so many problems with the tension, that I'd want to do another quilt using thread on a cone, and see how it quilts up. 

Here's a more complete photo of the quilt:


You can even see those muslin pieces on the side where I tested tension.  There are so many of those on the quilt that I actually ran out of room in the margins to test the tension!  Very odd because on my first quilt (where I used a spool too) I hardly ever had to mess with the tension so much that I needed to do this.

Well, the binding is made, I just have to attach it & finish up the quilt.  My whole reason for getting this one complete though is so that I can get a client's quilt loaded on the frame.  Yes, it's the Shabby Chic Kitty!  We figured out where to place the cats, and I appliqued those on the front and also put one on the back:
 

It's not my personal taste, but my client loves it and so I am happy to be able to accommodate her.  I was able to finish the appliques (printing, fusing, cutting, placing, stitching) piece the back, get everything squared up, basted to the zippers, and then zipped onto the frame this evening:


To be able to do this, I had to suspend video recording this weekend, so I'll be doing mostly re-runs of AccuQuilt videos this week over on Quilt Possible! I do have two new videos to pull from, but it's not enough to carry a full week.  My sincere hope is to get this quilted on Friday & Saturday, work on the binding & label on Sunday, and get it in the mail first thing Monday the 20th.  It'll have to go Priority to get there in time for Christmas.

Ordinarily, I'd try quilting this during the week, but it's a pantograph and that takes some focused time to set up before the brainless quilting can begin.  And besides... this week I have a DATE!  (GASP! Shocking, isn't it?)

Happy quilting!