Needle Down & Knee Lift

Just had a moment of realisation this afternoon that it is only one week until our next class and I need to do a bit of work to complete the "challenge' that Sue set for us.  And as fate would have it, Sue called me this evening to check on my progress and how I was going sewing the pie into the bow ties.

Well I hadn't started of course….  but luckily she had passed on some words of advise for me and asked me to share with you.  Sue had done some reading and noted that the old quilting books all recommended putting the pie on the bottom and the tie on top.  And the more recent / modern books and tutorials all say pie on top tie on bottom.  Importantly all say pin, pin, pin, pin, pin and then pin some more!

Sue found that the pie on bottom tie on top worked best for her, along with about 16 pins!

Now I've been playing and found that the tie on bottom and pie on top worked best for me.  I used about 5 pins for each pie to tie.  But most importantly I found that the needle down position on your machine and the knee lift worked wonders.  It gave me the ability to easily adjust the tie bit by bit easily as the needle down position kept the two tight in place.  I did quite a few blocks and only had 2 little gathers so overall pretty good result for me.  Having said that I have done at least 2 quilts using drunken path and this probably gave me good practise.

Here are a few photos for you of my small progress.  This week I will have to be very studious and do some sewing to see if I can meet the challenge.

Look forward to seeing you all next week, and most of all seeing how everyones challenge went.

Ciao Kim