Quilting Made in Belfast!

Well, how do you decide how to quilt a project?

Most times I look at the project and try to take some sort of influence from the patchwork itself, or the inspiration I drew on to make the quilt in the first place.

I do enjoy free machine quilting - yes, it is very hard to get nice even stitches - but there's a great satisfaction in looking at the finished quilt and knowing you have made the whole thing from start to finish. 

On this project I used a combination of straight quilting and free machining.

The Janome Horizon has an Acufeed system, which evenly pulls layers of fabric past the needle, meaning that the layers of fabric in a quilt 'sandwich' are kept together evenly and not pushed at different speeds. There is an Acufeed quilting foot that comes with the Horizon machine, but I was given the opportunity by Janome to try out the Acufeed Ditch Quilting Foot.

It's a chunky foot, but this gives it more grip on the fabric.

From the side view, you can see the Acufeed system behind the foot.

On this machine, it's essential to lift the foot to an 'upper' position..

then the Acufeed can be brought down and into position, under the foot.

All set to go :)

The black guide, in the center of the foot makes quilting in the ditch more precise, while the layers of fabric and wadding are fed through evenly.

Now I'll have to practice my free machine quilting!

What's your preference, straight quilting or free machining?