Saturday Sewing with Liz: simple and easy quilting projects

Looking for simple, easy quilting projects that deliver quick results?

Probably because we have been spending so much time at home, hubby asked me to “brighten” up our living room. I really don’t have the time or energy to be doing complicated and time consuming projects at this time.

I had made 4 rather nice pieced cushion covers some time back (piecing designs for these were from a Thimbleberries book I own called  “Big Book of Quilt Blocks” by Lynette Jensen.) Hubby quite likes these scatter cushions ….but he wanted more.  Fortunately, I had quite  a bit of these fabrics left over so I set to work with my rotary cutter and cut a bunch of 5 inch charm squares.

Next was to randomly sew these charm squares together with 1/4 inch seams and my Janome 1/4 inch foot. I sewed these on the Janome Sewist 740DC which got the job done quickly and easily.  I obviously pressed my seams as I went making sure they were pressed in alternate directions at seam joins so that bulk was reduced.

My plan was to make 2 long runners for use as throws over the back of my 2 sofas as well as a square table topper for my coffee table. I had some charm squares over so I sewed them together in groups of 4 to make 4 or 5 large mug rugs or coasters.

Next up was to sandwich my projects. I found suitable backing fabric in my stash. Unfortunately, I am almost totally out of batting so I had to resort to joining scraps of batting I had. No matter though as I used that iron-on tape which joins sections of batting and it worked like a dream.  All sandwiched, I was ready to quilt.

Janome Acufeed Flex ditch quilting foot SD

I moved to the Janome Continental M7 as it is so much faster, has more space for my quilting (almost 14 inches to the right of the needle!) and has the most awesome Acufeed Flex Plus system. What is that, Liz, you ask? The upper feed dogs on this new Janome M7 machine have a separate dedicated motor which drives the feed dogs and the result is a slick and super effective feeding system for quilting and lots of other sewing too.

I found the Janome purple tip needles worked well to prevent skipped stitches as the cobra head on the needle above the eye does a perfect job.

I stabilized the sandwiches with some ditch quilting along the length and breadth of my runners. I used a lime green cotton sewing thread in my needle which blended well with my fabrics.  And a poly sewing thread in the bobbin which matched my backing fabric. I lengthened my stitch to 3.0mm and made sure the Acufeed Flex plus was activated. I used the Acufeed Flex foot SD for ditch quilting and the straight stitch needle plate.

this shows the settings on the Continental M7 before I started the quilting. The pivot function was selected and also the Acufeed flex Plus – icons are yellow showing they are selected.

I then stitched diagonally across the blocks starting in one corner and continuing to the next edge and then switching direction and sewing more diagonals. For this straight stitching, I switched to the HP2 foot and HP plate. I did this as it is narrower and I did not need the ditch quilting guide anymore.  I kept going back & forth diagonally across my charm squares and eventually the entire runner was quilted without having to stop and start at all. This is great as most of us are not that fond of the somewhat tedious task of burying threads. There were zero threads to bury here.

I repeated this for all my sandwiches in next to no time at all. It really is super fast when your machine sews at 1300spm!!

the back of one of my runners/throws

I have not yet trimmed/squared up my projects,  nor has the binding been applied yet. But, the binding strips have been cut and will soon be joined and used to finish my living room “brighteners”.