Free Motion Quilting My Wacky Lap Quilt & A Quilting Quick Fix Tip

 Since we have had a lot of snow on the ground, I have been busy free motion quilting on my Wacky Quilt.  The Wacky Quilt has been a UFO for more years than I would like to admit.  My mom and I took a class together when the Quilt Bus was in town.  Mom's quilt has been finished and my Dad has spent many naps under that quilt while mine has been unfinished--but no more!

I really didn't have a plan when I started to quilt.  I just wanted to experiment and this is the result.

Last week a snow storm hit our area and I was off work for two days--so I celebrated my days off by sitting at my sewing machine.  I quilted the center and then the borders with feathers and leaves.  The center was quilted pretty heavy and last Saturday I laid it down in the middle of the floor and my heart sank a little because I could see little ripples in the borders that had not been quilted yet.  When I think I'm in trouble, I'll call Mom.  I told her my dilemma and how much I had quilted it and we decided that I did nothing wrong because I measured twice before I added my borders.  I don't like the ripple effect when fabric stretches.  Measuring and pinning are my friend when I want to have a quilt lay flat.  So today when I finished, it did lay flat as in the first picture above--I worried about nothing! 

This was a fun project!  I used Highlights from Superior Threads.  It is 40 wt high sheen polyester that is made for a crazy quilter like me!  I used a #90 Topstitch needle in my machine.  Topstitch needles are one of my top choices for a quilting needle for two reasons.  Reason number one they are easier to thread and reason number two is it keeps the thread from shredding and breaking.

  As I was quilting, I had a problem with my quilt sliding off the side of the table.  

Here is a quick fix!  I already had these clamps that I bought from an office supply store many years ago.  They were clamped to my table with the silver levers sticking up.  They're not a perfect system, but they did do a decent job of keeping my quilt on the table.  Every once in a while I would have to snap the levers back where I wanted them.

If you are looking for my One World One Heart post, just click on the link :)

Happy Quilting

Kay Lynne