Progress and Improvements

Let's start with my design wall.  There is less on it this week than usual - which is a good sign.   It means more pieces have made their way onto the bargello quilt.  About 1/2 done now.  It is certainly slow going, but it's starting to come together.

I took a break after that, and quilted another small quilt on my new frame.  This one went much better than the last!  I increased the length of my leaders and gave myself some extra length on the backing, so that I could reach the whole quilt without adjusting the attachment points at the end.  I had much more quilting room at the end of this one, despite the quilt being slightly larger (about 40" square, rather than 30" as the last one was).  So the lighter fabric makes a really big difference.

I just had one minor goof-up.  I cut slightly more than half of my backing fabric, to allow the extra distance I needed to the (short) leader for the backing.  And then as I shuffled stuff around the room to get setup, I grabbed the closest piece of backing and loaded it up.  I'm sure you can see this coming - I picked up the wrong piece of backing!  I didn't even notice until after I started quilting. So I crossed my fingers and continued.   Luck was with me - the backing was just long enough for the quilt.  I did have to get creative to reach the last 6 inches of the quilt, but it worked out.

I still have some learning to do, to figure this contraption out.  I had a few issues with the quilt top puckering - not sure why, but I hope to figure that out soon.  I suppose some practice pieces would be a good plan to get the hang of this.  In any case, I'm feeling better about the time I invested in building this thing, and I think I'm going to enjoy this new table.

Check out Judy's blog to see what other quilters have on their design walls today.