Featherweight's Big Bang

Here is my Wednesday WIP...

I was successful in signing up for the Modern Quilt Guild Michael Miller Fabric Challenge. I got my package in the late summer -- I will admit to being a bit disappointed at receiving several duplicates and thus not the full spectrum of fabrics. I had to go to the Fat Quarter Shop (great selection) to finish out the choices and get backgrounds, etc. My initial inspiration came from a recent MQG webinar by Christina Cameli on wedge quilts. Given the small amount of fabric, I did a little designing on EQ7 instead of going fully improve and used EQ7 to print the wedge freezer-paper foundations.

EQ7 mockup from which foundations were printed

Arranging pieced foundations for assembly

Back of the assembled circle of wedges, seams pressed open

Finally, I recently inherited (or rather have on long-term loan) a Singer Featherweight. This little cutey is in perfect shape -- decals intact, carrying case with all the accessories, recently serviced and everything in working order. I bought it a little Sew-Ezi table, a walking foot, and seam guide, a cool (temp-wise) LED light bulb, and several other toys to keep it happy and make it feel loved. My goal is to make the entire quilt -- piecing, quilting, binding -- with the Featherweight.

Sewing the completed circle into the which background.

So far, I've done as planned. Foundations were all pieced and then sewn together, and the trimmed circle was sewn into the background. I did use a freezer paper template, starch and glue stick method to turn under the background seam allowance temporarily glue it onto the circle and then stitch in the fold line (shown above), but that is my usual approach. The Featherweight is surprisingly good at this fiddly stuff. The feed-dogs are narrower than our modern 7mm or 9mm machines, and the narrow foot gets into small spaces. Visibility could be a little better -- it would be nice if I can figure out how to attach a Brite-Lite using one of the oil port holes.

The original design focused on the wedges and did not include a border. I went back, using a picture of the completed center overlaid in the center of the EQ7 worktable, to design a foundation pieced border.

Updated EQ7 design, using a photo of the center to design the border

Those are finished and sewn on. I made a back out of MM left-overs and now I am working on the quilting, first with the walking foot and then hopefully some free motion. Again, visibility is a bit of an issue, but my ditch-stitching is surprisingly good. I'm still thinking about how to do the free motion with the Featherweight, since the feed-dogs don't drop. Maybe with an adjustable height free motion foot and stitch length set to 0?

Thanks for stopping by...

Susan