Barcelona, Baby!

I've got a fun little finish to share and two talented friends to thank.

 Ta-da! It's a baby quilt made from using my lovely friend, Cheryl's awesome pattern,

"On a Jelly Roll"

 and fabric I won from another lovely friend,  Brigitte, 

(this is her Barcelona line and these were her studio scraps - how cool is that?!).  

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Cheryl's pattern is well designed, easy to follow and quick to stitch.  I chose to make the baby sized version, but the pattern can also be made in two other sizes.  Expect to see another version sometime in my future. ;o)

I think using Brigitte's fabrics  to make a modern quilt for a baby boy means lots of bright colour without it being "babyish".

Barcelona, Baby! Pattern is On a "Jelly" Roll, designed by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs.

I was so happy to be able to combine the talents of my friends and to have a chance to try some free motion quilting on another one of my vintage Singer sewing machines.

 I always piece on my Singer 15-91 and normally, I quilt on my Janome MC 7500, but I decided to set up my Singer 201 and see how she would work for quilting.

The free motion/darning foot I'm using is for a modern, low shank machine.  This foot does not rest on the needle bar, has no plastic parts to it,  has an adjustable spring and other interchangeable pieces (a closed toe and clear, wide plastic toe along with the open toe shown in photo). It is an awesome attachment and well worth the money I spent to buy it.  Works equally great with my Janome MC 7500 or with my vintage Singers.

I have used the 15-91 for quilting on small items like pillows, placemats and bags, but wanted to try on a larger project with a larger vintage machine.

The 201 is only slightly larger than the 15-91 (both in distance from the needle to the body of the machine and in height from machine bed to body) and the fact that both machines are housed in cabinets make them perfect candidates for quilting. 

I also love that both the 15-91 and 201 can have their feed dogs dropped to make free motion quilting on  them possible. Previously, I discovered that I can use the free motion foot I bought for my modern Janome on my 15-91. However, it does have to be slightly adapted,  so that the foot would be centered with the needle (because you cannot adjust the placement of the needle on the vintage machines and this modern foot will not have the opening centered with the needle without some adaptation. My husband fashioned a piece of thin metal with a hole in it, which boosts the foot further away from the post the foot attaches to on the machine.  It works perfectly!). 

Once I got my settings adjusted, making smooth curves worked nicely. The texture this style of quilting adds, will really pop, after the quilt has been laundered.

I played around with stitching loops and whirls on a scrap test piece but settled on some meander quilting for the texture it gives.  I love meander quilting!

I used a variegated 50wt blue/grey Wonderfil thread for the front and back of the quilt.

Using the vintage machine for free motion quilting is different than using a modern machine.  One difference is that you have to remember that if you want your needle to remain in the down position, you will have to hand crank it there because there's no electronic setting that makes this happen. ;o)

This baby quilt was the perfect size for helping me get a taste of using my Singer 201 for quilting and am pretty satisfied with my initial attempt.   Once the quilting was complete, I machine stitched on the binding (because a baby quilt will certainly receive a lot of washings... ;o).

Love a dotted binding!

I'm so glad I made this quilt, even though I don't have a recipient for it.  Now I'm seriously contemplating using my Singer 201 to quilt my king size granny square quilt.  However, before I do that, I intend on  practicing a bit more. ;o)

Barcelona, Baby Quilt