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A Spandex Quilt, part 2 – “40 Wonderful Years”

June 5, 2016 6 Comments

Welcome back to my spandex quilting adventure!

Sewing on this non-traditional fabric presented a number of problems. Not only did the copper spandex fabric show pin holes and drag when satin stitching with a walking foot, but I couldn’t find any way to mark it for quilting. I could mark on the black, but that wasn’t good enough.

Then the real problem came when I tried to free motion. It would go smoothly for a while, then the spandex would begin to drag and pucker under my hopping foot. What a DRAG!!! When free motioning, there is no way to place paper under the foot, as I did when satin stitching. What to do??? Well, I was able to do a lot of straight quilting first to anchor everything.

AD straight quilting

Next, I free motioned in the black fabric (where there was no drag).

Eureka!

Here’s the exciting part: the straight line grid quilting I’d already done framed in where the free motion quilting would go. So I flipped the quilt over and free motion quilted my spirals from the back. It worked great!

AD free mo from the back

Some areas were quilted heavily and others weren’t quilted at all. The effect was what I was hoping for, and here’s the finished quilt!

quilting with spandex

So Why is it called “40 Wonderful Years”? Well, when creating the design, I needed a focal point for the center. I wanted to use Art Deco lettering, as that was very popular during the Art Deco period. But what “word”? You may remember that my husband and I just celebrated a landmark anniversary (click here for that post). On our first date (in 1972), we went to dinner and a movie, and then we walked along Bradford beach on Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, and this romantic man drew our initials in the sand. I decided to return the compliment 🙂 !

I hope you enjoyed my spandex adventure. Any questions?

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Randee says

    June 5, 2016 at 1:32 pm

    Hi Chris~ Your new system is great. I tried the original and it is still trying to load, but when I went to the newest blog it popped right up. Thank you so much. And your Art Deco project is beautiful!
    Randee

    Reply
  2. Juleen says

    June 5, 2016 at 2:29 pm

    Love your quilt! You are so talented, Chris. You just keep going until you find what works! What an inspiration to all of us.

    Reply
  3. Bernadette Martin says

    June 5, 2016 at 5:41 pm

    Chris,
    I’d be interested in seeing the back of that quilt. The little you showed was beautiful!
    Bernadette

    Reply
  4. Angela Burger says

    June 5, 2016 at 5:55 pm

    Spectacular! Glad you gave us details of how you did it–in case anyone was insane enough to try! Superb craftsmanship and design.

    Reply
  5. Jodi Grzeczka says

    June 6, 2016 at 12:01 am

    Chris, it’s spectacular! What a concept! How different was the sample you saw, since you seemed to be breaking brand new ground? I love your “forge ahead” attitude! You give me courage and inspiration!

    Reply
  6. Kathleen Swinkowski says

    June 7, 2016 at 7:54 am

    Love the quilting. Isn’t it interesting how we come up with the names of our quilts.
    Thank you for sharing your process with this quilt.

    Reply

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