Playing with the Hearts Template Set on my Baby Lock Tiara

Last week, I was able to use a 50% coupon at my LQS to purchase this set of concentric hearts quilting templates. This was the last set they had on the wall.

They are by Creative Grids.  When I went to their website to look for design suggestions, I could not find any information on them. I don’t know if I got one of the last ones available or if they are just not widely available yet. Either way, I am very happy to have them.

This was my first sample on some scrap fabric. I quilted around the outside and/or the inside of a couple of the templates, depending on the size that I was going for. Then I free motion quilted inside the lines, I was pretty happy with the quilting with in the hearts. (Keep in mind, I am new at this!) There is no need to discuss the background filler outside of the hearts~ major fail!  But that is the great thing about scrap fabric samples, not a big deal if it turns out ugly, it is a learning piece.   🙂

Even with the overlay in place on my Tiara, I was having trouble keeping the templates from wobbling a bit on the “hump” caused by the slight height discrepancy between the machine and the table. I decided to slip a couple of thin catalogs on either side of the needle plate underneath the overlay.  This helped a lot, but there was still a bit of a dip in front of the machine between the catalogs.

I also had a smaller magazine that was the same thickness as the catalogs, but it was a bit too big to fit in front of the needle plate, so I used a rotary cutter to trim it down to fit the space.

To smooth things out a bit more, I added my Supreme Slider. I probably didn’t need to use this, but since I have it and it is just sitting in a drawer, I decided to leave it. This is the smaller of the 2 sizes available, but it seems to be enough to help. Now the table top feels much more even.

My second attempt with the Hearts templates was with white thread on white fabric.

After I was done quilting the hearts, I was nervous about filling in the background since my first sample turned out so bad.

This is my attempt at “McTavishing” to fill in the background. (Thank you, Leah Day, for introducing me to this idea!)  I think it turned out very pretty. At this point, I could have trimmed it and put the binding on it and called it done, but felt like it might be too much white for a mini wall quilt.

I decided to be adventuresome and add color with some Jacquard Lumiere paints that I had. I think I liked it better before painting it, but I think it is pretty both ways.

One major thing I learned from this particular project is that I should have put the binding on BEFORE I painted the quilt. The paint caused my machine to produce several skipped stitches, so I stitched 2-3 times around the binding to be sure that it was secure before painting it, too.

The colors that you see on the front were not my first attempt. You can see on the back side that the areas that were painted over twice had some bleed through to the back side. I did have a piece of freezer paper underneath, just in case this happened. I added the corner triangles for hanging the piece with a thin dowel. I am pretty sure this will be my March 2013 submission for the AAQI Quilt a Month Club.

Edited to add link:  Click Here for AAQI Listing for this mini quilt.

PS: I am tagging this post with HandiQuilter, HQ, Sweet 16 and Sweet Sixteen since the Baby Lock Tiara is an identical twin sister to the HandiQuilter Sweet Sixteen.

• Posted in: AAQI ♦ Babylock Tiara ♦ Quilting
• Tagged: AAQI, Alzheimer's, Art Quilt, Baby Lock Tiara, Concentric Hearts, Creative Grids, free motion quilting, Jacquard, Leah Day, Lumiere paint, McTavishing, Mini Quilt, Quilting, Quilting Templates