Machine Quilting Dilemma

I always do any Stitch in the Ditch quilting first when I'm quilting a quilt. The reason for this is that as you work your way through that part of the quilting you are removing the pins. This reduces the weight of the quilt making it easier to maneuver it for free motion quilting. I learned that tip from Diane Gaudynski's "Guide to Machine Quilting" book. It has been my Go To machine quilting resource for years.

I had a table runner that I wanted to finish and all that was left was the the free motion design. I knew exactly what I wanted to put in the three main sections but I was struggling with perfecting the design on my own.

Quilt Top before Quilting

I found the design I wanted in my "doodle Quilting" book by Cheryl Malkowski. I love this book too; it has 120 continuous line machine quilting designs. Cheryl teaches you how to start practicing by tracing the design with a pencil. Next you draw it without tracing. Then you start using your machine. This technique has really improved my free motion quilting when I have a specific design I want to use.

I chose "All Those Ls and Es" as the motif.

I don't like to mark my quilting designs on my quilt. I'm not perfect when it comes to staying on the lines. I like free motion quilting. I'm not an award winning quilter, but I do enjoy doing it. The stress of having to stay on the line takes away from the pleasure I get when I quilt. So I needed to come up with a way to get the design in the correct size onto my table runner.

I chose to use Sticky Fabri-Solvy. It is a wash away stabilizer backed with freezer paper that goes in your printer. I have been using it to transfer the designs for my stitching projects for a couple years now. I love it in that capacity and decided to give it a try here. A table runner is something that will get washed so it seemed like the perfect solution.

Another challenge I faced was that I needed different sizes than the illustration in the book. I enlarged the design to 135% of the original size for the center of the star and reduced it to 75% of the original size for the two spaces on either side of the star. To make the best use of the Sticky Fabri-Solvy I made 2 copies of the smaller image on paper. Cut them out and used a glue stick to glue them onto an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper.

I copied both sizes onto the Sticky Fabri-Solvy using the Draft setting on my printer. Then I just peeled away the paper backing and finger pressed them onto my table runner. Here's what it looks like with the Fabri-Solvy in place. 

As is the case often times when I'm quilting a quilt it tells me that I need more. So I traced the exact size from the book onto paper and pinned it in place in the smaller squares and quilted on the paper. Then I peeled it off. I should have just traced it onto the Fabri-Solvy because I hated peeling off the paper; I didn't think of that when I did it. Next I decided that I needed the smaller size in the dead space where the flying geese are at the outside star points and on either end of the table runner. That time I did use the Fabri-Solvy - way better.

Here's the project with all of the quilting done. I also have the binding sewn on, but not tacked down yet. 

I sewed down the binding and the next step was to wash out the stabilizer. You can do it in the sink but I prefer to put it in the washer on Delicate. I always seem to have laundry to do. I have found that this method works best for me. I don't like trying to figure out if all of it dissolved in water in the sink. By the time it agitates in the washer it is probably dissolved. It doesn't affect anything else I put in with it and I know it completely washes out.

Here's a picture of the quilting detail in one of the squares. You can see that there is no trace of the Sticky Fabri-Solvy.

I put the table runner on my kitchen table which is too big but I had to see how it looks on a table when it was all finished. 

All of the fabrics in this project are from Sew Batik.

Happy Quilting,

 Carol