Quilting the Dream Goddess Part 1

Before we get into talking about my new art quilt… You know the nice benefit of getting a lot done on a project you don’t really want to work on? A wonderful feeling of productivity and lightness!

This year long scrapbook project actually feels lighter and easier to manage. I’m still not totally caught up, but I’m a lot closer than I was before.

In the evening I rewarded myself with several hours of quilting time on the Dream Goddess:

I’m filling her face first, then working outward to fill in the rows of feathers in her hair. I’d like to have a big chunk of this finished by Thursday so I can bring her with me on a special trip…more on that later this week!

Filling in different designs through this quilt feels easy and fun. I’m intentionally building up thread like I did with Duchess Reigns which creates bold areas of white that really stand out from a distance:

With Duchess Reigns I struggled with distortion across the quilt surface and a lot of pleats and puckers. I believe a lot of those issues were caused by hand dyeing the wholecloth before it was filled. Just in case it was caused by my basting method, I’ve not only pin basted this quilt, I also machine basted with water soluble thread:

With lines of basting stitches 2-3 inches apart, the quilt is holding together a lot more securely. It took a few hours to get all the lines stitched, but I think it will be absolutely worth it.

This is the first quilt I’m quilting on the Juki 2200. It’s been a big adjustment switching from a domestic machine to table mounted longarm. I’m planning to use this machine mostly for my personal projects, like this Dream Goddess, but still film videos and quilt most quilts on my domestic machines out in the Crafty Cottage.

I honestly didn’t expect quilting on a table mounted longarm to feel so different, but it has been a bit like learning how to free motion quilt all over again. I know I’ll have the hang of it down by the end of the Dream Goddess quilt. I plan to shoot a video on using this new machine soon so be looking for an update sometime next week.

Now I’m off to throw more thread at this pretty girl!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day