Shades of Mauve

The last two quilts I have completed on my Millennium have been tops I made several years ago. Several meaning quite a while ago.....It is great to get them off the shelf and finished up. That is my motivation-to get projects done and to use them as learning tools at the same time.

This card trick quilt is the largest top I have loaded on my longarm to date. I quilted it in an over all freehand pattern of cabbage roses that I am developing. I quilt the flower and leaves and then echo quilt them with some swirly little twigs, quilting each as a unit. I used Glide Cotton Candy in both the top and bottom threads.

This quilt was quilted with the same thread - and not just because I had wound too many bobbins! This time I used a pantograph - my first! - and learned many valuable lessons in thread tension. I think many of us are hesitant to adjust our thread tensions because it feels like we are wandering into the unknown, but it is just something you have to get comfortable with. When I did get the correct tension, the rest of my quilting was effortless, undoubtedly a great feeling!

 The pantograph I used was from The Ultimate Guide to Longarm Machine Quilting . There are a variety of designs in this book which I have found appealing as I learn which style of pantos I am most comfortable with. It is a simple procedure to copy the designs at the size you want, tape them together and use them on your longarm bed. As I grow more comfortable with  quilting from the back of my machine, I can see trying at least several more from Linda V Taylor’s book.