Quilting without batting

This month someone asked me to quilt a quilt for them.  Of course!  

She lives in a hot state, and so we decided to try quilting it without batting.  I'm always up for experiments.  I've quilted a few things without batting when I'm just working on test patterns, but that's been mainly to get the motion down and not caring too much about how it turns out.

Overall, I'd say it was a successful experiment.  There were a few hiccups along the way, and I just wanted to document them for future reference.

1.  It was hard to get the tension correct.  It wasn't bad, as I couldn't just pull the thread out of the quilt like I can when it isn't working, but I did have some eyelashes when making the loops.  I think the lack of batting was the issue here, as I haven't been having that problem otherwise.

2. The thread broke a surprising number of times.  Sometimes I was about to throw my machine across the room because they were happening so often and sometimes I could almost get a row completed before it broke.  I did get some new thread and changed the needle.  I know my machine often has some nests in the bottom of the quilt that I need to fix at the end and I wonder if the thread just broke instead of creating a nest.  (Although it still seemed to happen more often than normal.)  Jury's still out on whether this was a thread issue, machine issue, or no batting issue.  Luckily, it has a pretty easy fix...it just takes a bit longer at the end to bury all the extra thread ends.  

I sadly forgot to get a picture of the quilt before I packed it up, but I did get some pictures of the back with the quilting.  The loops are nice and big and I enjoyed doing them so large!  I usually end up with small loops because that's just what my arms do, but I'll have to remember that I can do large loops too.

Bright & Black

I had two goals: make a baby boy quilt and only use fabric that I already had.  While I can't always find what I want in my fabric stash, it is also starting to become a little too much for me.

I really, really like how this quilt turned out.  I love the assortment of colors, while still following a color theme.  I love how the (Kona) black background helps them pop.  I think I need to seriously consider using black more often.  My black cat was a pain during the photo shoot, so I finally included him in some pictures.  I think he realized that he was the same color.

For quilting, I did a meandering star.  I was running a bit late with the quilt, so wanted something I could do quickly.  I only quilted the black areas.

Ah, there was one more thing to say.  The pattern is based off of Melissa Corry's Back to Basics at Happy Quilting.

Harry Potter nine patch

I love how this quilt turned out!  (I think that about a lot of the quilts.  But nevertheless, this one is no exception.)

The pattern is Urban Nine Patch on Point by Jenny Pedigo of Sew Kind of Wonderful.  The colors correspond to the different house colors in Harry Potter.  (There are several different links with slightly different colors, but I used this one.)  I didn't want the quilt to scream Harry Potter though, so I put the colors in the blocks and mixed up the houses.

I used the following Kona colors:

background: steel
inner background: dove
Gryffindor: Chinese Red and Papaya
Slytherin: Shale and Holly
Ravenclaw: Pacific and Gold
Hufflepuff: Citrus and Black

I went a bit crazy on the quilting.  In the background it's a star stipple - pretty easy.  In the nine patch, the corner colors have a tiny stipple and the other color has some curved lines (using a ruler).  The thread color always matched the fabric color.

Where the blocks met I did some more curves with the ruler, still matching the color of the triangle the curve went through.  If I had to do it again, I'd change this part.  I think it was a lot of extra work for not a lot of coolness...although it does make an interesting pattern and I'm still happy with how it turned out.

Update Feb 2022

Here's what I've been working on lately!

1. Begonia. I've had a few baby quilts that have taken precedence, but it's currently the one I'm working on.

2. Stash Bee 2022.  I need some dark green for setting corners.  I'll pick that up tomorrow and then continue finishing this one, as the baby is due in March.

 3. Black and scrap.  First of all, this needs a better name.  But I finished it in record time for a baby, only to have it sit in my house for a while.  It just needs a final post; pictures were already taken.

4. Harry Potter-esque.  Finished and gifted!  I just need the final post.

5. Scrap quilt. This is still sitting in the same bucket, waiting to be finished.  I've at least changed the picture.  This is my longest WIP, so it seems like I should get it back on the quilter.  We'll see what happens in the next six months though; I'm not holding my breath.

6. Fabric from Christmas.  I've finished burying some threads, but have a few more to do along with binding it.  I'm currently using it in it's unfinished state, which has surprisingly made me less motivated to finish it.

7. Trying to fit in - left over triangles. I put this on the quilter and got some done, but then had to take it off.  It might be off for a bit yet, but hopefully not too long.  It's small, so easy to take on and off as needed.

8. Scrap bee blocks 2017: So I finally took pictures of this after telling myself I needed to do so forever, and I found a spot in the white fabrics.  I ended up replacing the fabric with the spot and just finished requilting it.  So I have some new threads to bury and it needs a final post...possibly with new pictures?

9. Winter quilt.  I thought I'd working on this during the winter and haven't touched it.

10. Temperature quilt.  I need to quilt this.  It's from 2017, so it's rather low on the priority list. 

11. Doll quilt.  I just had my quilter get a check-up and while it's running wonderfully, all of the tension was changed and off.  This might be a good choice to quickly finish up to get the tension back to normal.  (It's almost there, just a little bit off still.)

12. Librarian quilt.  One of my favorite librarians is having a baby, so they obviously need a quilt!

13. Stash Bee 2022b.  I had enough blocks to make a second baby quilt.

Fading away - finished

This quilt has been finished for quite some time, but for some reason I never got around to officially blogging about it.  Today is the day to remedy that!

I really like this quilt and how it fades into blackness.  While I was pregnant and feeling terrible (seven years ago) all I did was make large strips of scrap fabric.  Most of them were used for a different scrap quilt, but I had enough to make this one too.

I added invisible blocks for the blocks/strips that are missing in the quilting areas, and some wavy lines in the areas that are "supposed" to be black.

It was a fun trip down memory lane, using all the scraps.  While I'd like to keep it, I also only need so many quilts in the house.  I think this quilt will be donated to help with adoption fees instead.  The back, while not shown, is a black minky.  Nothing too special about it other than it's soft.

Baby Bear Claw

I finished up a quilt for my mother-in-law!

I used a white double-loop in the white sections.  I did a matching color meandering star in the other parts.

I wasn't rushing through this quilt, but I was trying to get it done quickly.  So my go-to quilting motifs were fun and nice to use again.  There also weren't too many threads to hide at the end, which was another huge bonus!

Finished! Blue facets

A few months ago I asked any of my close friends if they'd like a quilt.  One of the guys in the group loves quilts, so his wife asked that I make one for his birthday.  We ended up with a blue version of Christa Watson's Facets.

  

This was such a fun quilt to make!  Usually I made a quilt and am happy to not make it again (with a few exceptions), but this could easily be one of those exceptions!  Making the crumb triangles was relaxing.  It took quite a while and made quite a mess, but I was able to use up some scraps and not think too hard while doing it. 

 

The color in the pictures above and below this paragraph are probably the best; I foolishly made the mistake of taking pictures on a sunny day and the pictures taken in the shadow have an odd color tone I couldn't get rid of.  I kept track of the Kona colors I used: Jamica, Prussian, Mediterranean, Teal blue, Riviera, Windsor, Sky, Oasis, Bluebell, Splash, Water, Jade green, Nautical, Cyan, Breeze, Evening, Malibu, Paris blue, Nightfall, Marine, Ocean, Blue, Bluebell, Navy, Bahama blue, Spa blue, Niagara, Celestial, Pacific, Royal, Algeria, and ...White.

 

I put a very soft backing on it...I'm actually not sure I'll use this type again.  It was more of a plush than a minky, and there were little fuzzies everywhere!  

Anyway, I quilted a random triangle in the diamonds with a variegated blue thread.  I did some piano keys in the white shashing.  I made the piano keys random widths so that I wouldn't have to measure it.