Joyce R. Becker Landscape Quilter blog

After several days of trying to quilt the sky in my Girly Girl Goat I finally got it right. For those of you who think "Professional quilt artists" never screw up, I'm here to tell you - WE DO.....Or, at least I Do! 

I was stitching along, thinking everything was hunky dory, only to discover the back of my quilt looked  a mess. Everything was fine at first and then it all went to hell! So, I started down the list of things that I recommend to my students:

1.  I pulled out all the quilting stitches which is a pain in the you know what!
2. I cleaned out my bobbin casing area, getting rid of all the lint and threads, etc.
3. I oiled my machine
4. I adjusted the top tension on my machine
5. I adjusted the bottom tension on my machine
6. I put in a fresh needle
7. I used a heavier weight thread in the bobbin
8.  I adjusted the top tension again
9.  I adjusted the bottom tension again
10.  I tested on a like sample and everything looked fine but it was just an illusion!

NOTHING WORKED

1.  I reversed sewed (I pulled out the quilting stitches again)
2. FINALLY, a light bulb went on! Maybe the type of sewing machine needle I was using was the culprit!
3. I took out the Metafil needle
4. I replaced it with a top-stitch needle and Voila, IT WORKED! 

TIP
It's really difficult to keep your quilting lines horizontal WHEN QUILTING SKIES,  so her's what I do:
Using your ruler, mark chalk lines in two inch intervals. In this case, I used a white chalk marker because it blends in with my sky fabric. If you just eyeball it, it's easy to get off track!

Now, I'm off to continue rewriting my quilting genre novel and finishing up the quilting on my girly goat!