Welcome to Saturday Quilting Bring & Share. Bring along your project(s) and join in the sharing in our Worldwide Quilting Community. You can be part of the sharing community by clicking on the links below, reading the posts and leaving an encouraging message or two in the comments boxes 🙂

How has your stitching week been? I achieved one out of two of my sewing goals. I had an enjoyable time following the Alpen Belt Bag pattern to make my own bag – you can read more about this in my previous post.

My second sewing goal of the week did not turn out so well! I was all fired up to finish quilting the Spider Webs & Stars quilt with a bit of free motion quilting on the spider web areas of the quilt. Hmm! My machine just would not play ball!  Numerous top thread breaks *sigh*

I noted the breaks happened whenever my stitching direction was going away from me (backwards). After doing all the usual checks (re-threading, tension, needle, cleaning out lint) thread breaks were still occurring 😠 I resorted to Google and found a helpful article on the subject by Paige of Quilting Wemple. She cited the possibility that the needle was piercing the thread as the direction of travel changed, saying some machines are more prone to this than others… Hmm! I really hope this is not true of my machine as Paige’s solution is to avoid stitching in the problem direction by turning the quilt sandwich. Having to stop stitching to rotate the quilt before changing stitching direction takes the ‘free motion’ out of free motion quilting doesn’t it? And would make stitching motifs like feathers really tiresome.

I’m not sure how to make progress with the quilting now… Whether to switch to my other machine (a smaller throat space and not-so-easy-to-adjust darning foot make this a less-than-perfect option) or to stay with my larger machine and switch to walking foot quilting (this would involve a lot of sandwich turning)? Bother, bother! Maybe I’ll try using the walking foot first and if that proves impractical I’ll change to the other machine to continue free motion quilting… Either way I feel determined to finish this quilt.

Here are the links into the Worldwide Quilting Community:

Linda of Flourishing Palms is a great illustration of the sharing nature of patchwork-quilters. In one week she taught a class (kwandi) and then attended a class (matchstick quilting). There really is so much to learn and share under the very broad umbrella of patchwork quilting!

Do you own more than one sewing machine? And do you have a particular sentimental attachment to any of them? Carole has just bought her eleventh machine and has decided not to let sentiment get in the way of reorganising her sewing space!

Great post by Krista Moser all about not missing the point when patchwork piecing. She really dives into the causes of imperfect points and gives clear directions as to how to avoid cutting off the tips of points as we piece our quilts.

Yvonne has been designing modern patchwork quilts for some time and has developed her own distinctive style in fabric choices, bold patchwork design and complimentary quilting patterns. Her latest finish, Congruence, is another well thought out and very striking quilt. The pattern is available from the Quilting Jet Girl website. And you can find out more about her quilting design process by reading her recent guest post on the Auribuzz website.

New Book (1): ‘Quilting with Curves, 20 Geometric Projects’ by Daisy Aschehoug. There’s a virtual book tour going on between 20th June and 1st July with an opportunity to win a copy of the book if you respond in the comments section at any of the stops. Full schedule on the C&T Publishing website.

New Book (2): ‘Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs’ by Kelly Young. This book is also on a virtual tour. Catch up with the schedule by visiting the stop at Sandra’s mmmquilts. The book contains 30 patterns for pieced quilt backs and there’s a link to access 18 scrappy quilt top patterns.

Rachel has used her creativity as a process to work through a very painful period in her life. She shares her ‘Rainbow Over Head’ quilt and explains how it demonstrates her working through of events. Using creativity as a means to process and come to terms with circumstances and the emotions around them is a truly wonderful gift. I have seen other people respond to deeply emotional periods of their lives with a paralysis of creativity. I guess we won’t know until something hits us if we will dig deep into our creativity for release or will experience a creative block?

Lori is working hard to keep on with her patchwork creativity in the face of on-going physical problems. I suppose her approach is the middle ground. She’s doing it because she’s been told it is good for her and acknowledges benefits from time spent patchwork quilting. Maybe she’s not using her making as a way to work through and express her emotions in the same way as Rachel, rather using creativity as a positive force when negative emotions could otherwise be overwhelming.

I do hope you have found these links inspiring/thought provoking and you find much joy in the process of creativity – whether it’s sewing or something entirely different 🙂

Happy Stitching!

Allison

PS. I have created a one page guide to caring for handmade patchwork quilts. You can access it via this link which also gives the option to sign up to my Behind the Scenes at Allison’s Patchworks newsletter 🙂