Ghosties, Ghoulies, and a New Friend

I've recently moved from Massachusetts back to my hometown of Pittsburgh and as a result, most of my possessions are in storage until we find a permanent ( or at least more permanent) place to live. I'd like to show you some of my older quilts that I've made, but I only have two with me here. The first quilt is from a pattern I found in an old issue of McCall's quilting called Ghoulies and Ghosties. I've mentioned before that I'm crazy about Halloween, so it's no surprise that this is one of the two quilts I have with me.

Ghoulies and Ghosties

It's a combination of pieced and appliqued blocks. All of the applique was done by hand and I sewed a large percentage of the pieced blocks by hand on the train to and from work.

Pieced and appliqued block

I machined quilted it in a large cross hatch pattern which isn't that exciting, but what I learned while quilting it was earth shattering! I discovered the walking foot!!! I had never used one before and couldn't understand why my quilts seemed to get distorted no matter how well I pinned. If you've never used one before, a quilting foot is a sewing machine attachment that you use instead of a regular presser foot. It has feed dogs just like the ones in your sewing machine and as you move  the quilt under the needle, the walking foot's feed dogs make sure that all three layers of the quilt move at the same time. With out one, your backing can shift or you can even have little folds in your quilt top from the pressure of the presser foot not moving equally with the feed dogs. My quilting lines would waver and I would have little folds and tucks.

On the brown checked fabric, you can see how the quilting is distorting it. My quilting to the left of the ghost is also pretty wavy from me trying to shift the layers to avoid bunching.

The middle line across the ghost is just full of tucks and folds. Of course, this had to be the center block

So, this quilt was just looking so sloppy. However, I had read about walking feet and decided to try one. For $15 at JoAnn's, I found a generic foot that fits a bunch of different machines and it worked like a dream! I'm totally hooked on this new accessory. The rest of the quilting was a breeze. It took a little time to get used to and I found it a bit tricky to stay in a straight line at first, but after a bit of practice, me and my new walking foot were the best of friends. I would recommend it to anyone if you find that even with careful pinning and straight seams, your blocks are pulling or getting distorted or you find that your quilt top bunches up at seams. I have a baby quilt in storage that I can show you later that is a perfect example of this. It was an Around the World pattern but when I was through quilting it, the rows were almost wavy. It was the first quilt I made, but still! It's a bummer to have that happen.

The other quilt I want to show you is actually a picnic blanket I made for the summer. I'll have pictures soon! Now, go have fun with a walking foot!