Quilting with a difference!

The challenge was how to quilt flowing words from top to bottom of a quilt. The answer was to turn my sewing machine.

I have often thought about using my machine in this way but never actually tried it and now I know why - it's very hard on the shoulders! This is because you need to sit quite low to be able to see what you are stitching as the machine casing obliterates the needle and the foot. Nevertheless, I persevered, making sure I stood up, flexed my shoulders and stretched after every few rows of quilting.

It was interesting to use the machine and not be able to see any of the buttons etc and I certainly found having the foot tension lever in the wrong place challenging! It felt like using a completely different sewing machine.
Fortunately there was only a small area to quilt and I must admit I completed the quilting quite quickly. It definitely enabled my quilted writing to flow and there was very little manoeuvring of the quilt needed which certainly wouldn't have been the case had I used my machine conventionally.

Here you can see a detail of Broken Windows, which will be exhibited at The Living in the Middle exhibition at Weavers Gallery, Ledbury from 29 April to 12 May 2013.
You will be pleased to know that my shoulders are fully recovered now although I am about to go into the garden and tackle some of the overgrown bushes before they burst into bud! And the sun is shining!!
Speak to you soon
Edwina