Miniature Mosiacs Session 5: Quilting the Mosaic

So we're now ready to quilt. And you've got lots of options here. Sort of. One of the things you probably wouldn't want to do is do any allover quilting pattern on this. What we really want to do is respect the quote unquote piecing where we've laid all of our tiles, and we want to tack down as much as we possibly can.

If this were a quilt that was going to be laundered a lot, we'd want to make sure every edge was tacked down. And tacking down simply means stitching just inside that edge about 1/16 of an inch, no more than 1/8 of an inch in. And if it was gonna be laundered, I'd want to make sure that every single edge was hit. So you want to kind of think about what you're gonna do. This is a small wall piece.

If I wanted to turn this into a pillow, which is a great thing to do with these smaller mosaics, again, I would want to make sure every edge was tacked down. And if I'm gonna tack down every edge, I definitely need to have a quilting schematic. Your next choice, or next thing to think about after you decide how you're going to quilt it or where you're going to be quilting or putting your quilting lines, is am I going to change thread color? Am I going to quilt in color? Well, I don't like to quilt in color.

The main reason I don't like to quilt in color is because then the color goes across the black, and I don't like the color to show up on the black because that's not how a mosaic would look. So I quilt the whole thing in black. So the black is going to show up on the color but it's not gonna show up in the background or the cement area or the grout area, if you will. So I'm gonna be quilting everything in black. You also need to decide are you gonna quilt free motion or are you gonna quilt using your walking foot?

And it depends on your comfort level. I'm gonna be quilting today using my walking foot. And I can do that on this heart because there's really no tight curves or anything like that. But if your piece has a lot of tight curves, you're gonna be doing a lot of turning of your quilt if you use your walking foot. So it's a little easier on a piece that has just some subtle curves to it.

This might be a little bit interesting with that walking foot, but we'll just get to that when we get to it. So, when you think about a quilting schematic, so I'm gonna start by quilting this yellow line here. I can decide at what point am I gonna quilt every side down. I could just quilt all along this side here come up, come over, come down, come over, come up, and so like this, but not if I've got my walking foot on. I don't want to have to do all of that.

So I'm simply gonna quilt all along here, up, and all along there, and down, and not quilt these portions in between. This is gonna be held down nicely on the top and bottom. This is not going to be laundered. It's an art piece. So I don't have to worry about hitting every single side.

But when I get to this portion here, I'm gonna show you how to hit every single side. And basically, all I'm gonna be doing is going down this way, over, up this way, over, down this way, and so on. And when I get this portion done, then I'm gonna come in the opposite direction, and that's gonna get the other sides done. So you'll see what it is to get all of the sides done. You'll also see why it's nice to kind of keep your lines of black or background somewhat lined up like I was showing you when I placed all the pieces because then it's easier to do that quilting.

So I'm gonna go ahead and quilt this upper portion first and give you an idea of how that's going to look. The way I knot off is by keeping the quilt from feeding while I take a few stitches. And now I'm ready to go. So I'm just hugging that edge, trying to stitch about somewhere between 1/16 of an inch and 1/8 of an inch in, trying to be consistent. Okay.

So I finished this yellow line here and I'm in this position here on the yellow. And I'm gonna go ahead and come in here and do this green because that's where I'm at. I might as well, instead of having to knot off or anything like that. So I'm gonna come up this green, turn, and then come down the green. Okay.

I'm not gonna do that bottom portion of the green. Instead, what I'm gonna do, 'cause that bottom portion is gonna be fine, is I'm gonna travel up inside this little black channel right here, because you're not gonna see that black thread until I get to here. And then I'm gonna stitch around this green. And then I'm gonna come over here and stitch around this green. Come over here.

And then when I get all of that done, I'm gonna go ahead and stitch down that bottom portion of all those greens. So it's just kind of like making a road map of where you're going to go, making that decision a little bit before you actually have to make those stitches. So I'm just going up and down each side of these greens, hitting the top also. And then I'm gonna get that bottom curve when I'm done with all of the greens on this little portion. So you can see that if I was using my walking foot, I mean, my free motion foot, I wouldn't be having to turn the quilts so much.

However, then I would probably not have as straight of the lines as I have for this. So it just depends on what's important to you, your speed, getting it done quickly, getting it done a little bit more neatly. It's up to you. So now you can see here that what I've done on these greens is I'd gone up, over, down, scooted over to the next green, up, over, down, scooted over to the next green, and so on. So now, I'm gonna come back down and I'm gonna hit that bottom of each of these.

I'm gonna try to line up with this line I already stitched as I do that. Okay, so now all of those greens have been stitched down, and every side of those greens has been stitched down. So now you can see what it's like to have everything stitched down. Now I'm gonna head over here to this portion of the heart. And I'm going to basically stitch in a row this way, this way, back, this way, this way, this way, back, this way, just like I did here, but I'm gonna be stitching down all the little squares.

Now, if I want to, I can go all the way across and that's exactly what I want to do. So I'm gonna go all the way across. And even gonna go into this blue background here but I'm not gonna do the border. Now I'm gonna do the opposite side of that first row. And I've got a little, kind of a little jag here where things don't line up.

So I'm gonna have to do a little bit of stitching in the black because things aren't lining up right there, and that's okay. Anytime I stitched in the black, you're never gonna see it from the front. Okay. Now I have an angle here. And I'm gonna stitch in the black again so that I can get back to where I want to be on this row.

All right, so there's the first row, the long linear aspect done, and then move to the next row. Because I don't like the fact that that blue background isn't lining up, I'm gonna skip it this time because this is mine and I can do whatever I want to do. Whatever's gonna work for me is what I'm going to do. And now, the opposite side of that long row. And I'm gonna show you what this is starting to look like.

Okay. So, you can see that I've sewn up and down on this yellow, up and down on this row, up and down on this row. So I've gone up one direction, come down this direction. So I'm gonna keep doing that until I've finished this heart, and then I'm gonna move in the opposite direction. And now I can't go all the way across anymore because I'm in the hump of the heart.

So I'm just doing half of the heart at one time. So for those of you who are wondering what stitch length I'm using, everybody has their own choice and their own thing that they like when it comes to stitch length. I like to use a regular stitch length that I use to piece with, which is about 2 1/2 on my machine. I don't like it to be bigger but some people like their stitch to be bigger. And some people like it to be smaller.

There is no right or wrong. There's just whatever you like. Okay. Now. I'm almost done with this portion of the heart, and then I'm gonna do the opposite direction.

Okay. So, here we go. So now you can see that all of this portion, all of these horizontal lines have been stitched. So all of these edges are stitched down here on this whole portion of the heart. So now I'm gonna be moving in this direction.

Now, if I want to, I can hit this yellow at the same time but it doesn't really line up well for me so I'm not going to. I am gonna be doubling over areas that I've already stitched on some of these rows. So I'm gonna try to stay right in the same area that I stitched. I'm gonna go all the way up to the top of this yellow before I hit that yellow edge. So I can do it all at one time.

But I am gonna stop right here, and I'll deal with the rest of that later. I'm gonna come back up so that you can see what this whole quarter looks like quilted. I have one little section left here so I'm gonna stitch down in the black to get to where I want to stitch here on this section. You get this last side in. Okay.

And I'm gonna go ahead and knot off, and show you what I've done so far. All right. So this is what's quilted, this portion right in here. You can see that all of the sides are hit on all of these. And you can see that you can't see that thread at all in that black.

And so, it highlights each of the tiles by outlining in them black, but it doesn't really interrupt the black continuous line that is between each of those tiles. And that's what's really important with this mosaic look. Here you can see that I've done all four sides on the yellows in here. So I'm probably gonna end up doing it in here too. Here you can see where I've only done two sides and you can see how different it looks when all four sides are done compared to only two sides being done.

I prefer all four sides. I'd rather take the extra time and quilt it all up. But now I want to show you how we finish the edges of these wonderful quilts with a very, very simple iron-on binding.