Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Double Wedding Ring-How I load one

I started loading this 5 hours ago:
This is an antique top that was totally hand pieced. It has stains. It has open seams. It has quite a few challenges, but, it wants to be a beautifully quilted flat quilt. So, that's what is going to happen.

First I drew a line on top of the batting so that I would have a guideline for pinning the top:

I used a marker that would disappear quickly. I am measuring down from the basting line that I used for the batting. I am making sure that I have plenty of room for the curves.




Then I pinned the curves back in as straight a line as I could lining up with the drawn blue line.






Is all of this clear as mud?


Next up, I basted the top with the horizontal channel lock engaged.











Due to the fact that I know that this top is going to present some challenges, I am going to baste the entire top down and just work in sections, as though I would be hand quilting it. I also used the vertical channel lock and basted in the other direction, in an effort to keep the sides straight.




As you can see, there will be some areas to work with as I go through the top.




See all of the blue lines? That is where I have thread basted the three layers together.

I am sure there is an easier way to do this, but, I don't know it.

With so many challenges in this top, I felt that this is what I needed to do before I actually started the quilting process. Yes, it took a full morning, but, good preparation can make the difference between success or failure. I have also been in a position to see every inch of this top and become well acquainted with it.
Now, this afternoon...................I will actually begin the quilting process. This will take probably 3 or 4 days, so don't expect me to post again for a few days. You can check out and watch progress on my Facebook page since I usually post daily.

Finished pictures will post here when this is completed. Have a good week and stay cool.

5 comments:

Gayle Mundstock said...

Joyce, What a brave oportunity to bring a old quilt back to life. A difficult and long process and I will be looking forward to seeing photos of your progress.
Gayle from Minnesota

Frog Quilter said...

I too am looking forward to see the end result. Thanks for the info on how you are doing this.

Macthistle said...

Well... When you finish this, I may have another for you. I have two quilts my grandmother made that were hand pieced. One is a Wedding Ring. Unfortunately I sent them to someone years ago to quilt and they came back with polyester batting. It was before I started quilting and I didn't know what questions to ask except "Can you quilt?". Now I have the daunting task of taking them apart. Worked a bit on them today when I unboxed them. I was wondering who I could get to do these right. Now I know!

Macthistle said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Joyce said...

Macthistle, published your comment twice, so had to remove one. I would be happy to look as your quilts to see if I can help you with them. These are getting to be a nice challenge for me and I enjoy working on the 'old ones' as much as the new ones.