Tuesday, January 27, 2009

First quilt of 2009...

I made this quilt, called "Traffic Jam," for two dear friends of ours who are about to have a baby boy. The mom-to-be had her shower last Saturday, and the poor thing has definitely reached the "get this baby out of me!" stage. I was hoping that this quilt might brighten her day and help them feel ready for the new baby. This is my first "boy" quilt and I am very happy with the result. Quilt- "Traffic Jam" The quilt features a mid-tone solid grey, probably Kona, and pieced strips containing various primary colored prints, along with a few focal car prints. Some of the car prints are from purl soho and some are from pink chalk studio. As for the quilting, I quilted straight parallel lines in the grey "road" sections, and stipple quilted the patterned sections. My stippling is starting to improve, although I find that because I have to set my tension fairly high to keep the back looking neat, my thread often breaks while free motion quilting. This can be very frustrating, and often leads to a string of expletives on my part. Has anyone else experienced this? My machine has a scale from 0 to 9, and I have to keep it at about a 7 in order for the back not to look loopy. What do you keep your machine's tension on when free motion quilting? Another view I bordered the quilt in a solid yellow, which I like, but do not love. It makes the quilt look a little less sophisticated that I wanted, maybe because the grey/yellow combo screams construction site. The back is pieced from a large piece of rocketship printed fabric from Purl, along with some other pieces from my stash. The white/red check is from Joelle Hoverson's Cake Rock Beach line. Back of Traffic Jam Quilt

9 comments:

Wood said...

I love it, and I love the yellow border. I don't think it says "construction site," much less screams it. I think the whole thing is lovely. nice work!

Alissa said...

Oh it's so so nice!! Really so cute without being too cutesy. Love it!

Allison said...

I think its adorable, I just used that same car fabric from Pink Chalk in a coin quilt as well. WHen I free motion quilt I set my tension around 3 on my Bernina, If it keeps breaking you might need to loosen it by going to a lower number. I had to play with it alot before finding what went well with my machine, my Mom's Pfaff is the same. Good luck!

Cami said...

This is great! I love it, and I like the yellow, I think it works nicely. I really like the back too. Such a cute quilt and perfect for a baby boy. I have the same problem with I do free motion quilting. The last quilt I did had lots of tread breaks and it definilty does get frustrating. I keep my tension around a two but my machine only goes to a three so that sounds about right.

jacquie said...

this is great! such a wonderful mix of fabrics and i love that you used gray...so boy! wish i could help with the tension thing...i'll be reading to find out.

Anonymous said...

Found you on Flickr in the Fresh Modern Quilts pool. I really love how you put this one together. It is a great boy quilt, wonderful colors and theme. Thanks for sharing!

Katie Jean said...

I love it!! I think that rocket fabric is just too cute. I need to get some for myself!

beki said...

oh, it's lovely!

Kristen said...

this is fabulous! what a wonderful gift - great job.