Yes you will need a special foot, not sure if it's called a quilting foot or a walking foot. They can be exxy depending on the machine, mine was over $100.
Quilting is not my forte, but they look really good done like that. I have two flower ones - an iris and a cyclamen and they would look good done as a pillow too I reckon.
Not sure where you are BW, but my machine is new (year old) and I got a free quilting foot with it, I havent used it yet, I might in the future but if you wanted to borrow it or anything let me know (depends how far away you are too)
my mum just bought a brand new (and very very expensive) sewing maching, but it does EVERYTHING. Even the dishes apparently. Shes only had it a month or something, so still working it all out, but if worse comes to worse im sure i can con her into quilting it all up for you, or atleast she would be able to give you tips/help on the easiest way to do it. If you look in my fb photos under 'wedding quilt' she made that all by hand (before she got her fancy machine)
That quilt is amazing! I don't think I'd need anything as complicated as that. I'm planning on just joining simple squares together for the patchwork side of things. I don't know a lot about quilting, but I imagine it would all be straight lines? I'm in Windsor, so a bit too far from Wagga to drop over and borrow your machine. My sister thinks that a couple of our aunts may be able to do the quilting for me, so I guess I do have options (I just don't want to pick up the phone and call them!).
I guess it's a matter of playing with measurements and figuring out a layout that would work. I figure I don't need to make a firm decision on whether it becomes a quilt or a quilt cover until much further down the track - I'm looking at around 28 (because 26 doesn't have nice factors!) individual pieces of cross stitch before things get pieced together... it's a project of years, I suspect.
As for the afghan - I started it while pregnant with Sam and had hoped to get it finished before he was born. Work and premature birth ensured that didn't happen... by the time it was finished he was far too big to wrap up in it, so it mostly floats around in his room and would occasionally get used as an extra cover for him on cold nights.
I've found so much energy and the ability to push through pain and fatigue in tossing around ideas for this quilt!
So it may seem crazy that this arthritic old crone is launching into a project of this size, but apparently I need it for my sanity and mental health... to feel productive again now that I'm officially too ill to work is just... a breath of fresh air into my stuffy old life right now!
Anyway, I've been messing about with the dimensions of a single bed and the size of a standard single bed quilt and I've come up with a couple of different layouts that I'm messing about with.
Option 1: 3 squares across and 9 down. This gives me 27 squares of stitching, so the one bang in the middle of the bed (right between M and N) would be something related to the overall theme, but not actually a letter. Going with a 15cm x 15cm square for the stitching and keeping the designs centred on the bed, rather than bits hanging down the sides, I'd end up with 20cm between each design going across and only 5cm between them going down.
Option 2: 4 squares across and 7 down. This gives 28 squares of stitching, so there will be one at the beginning and one at the end that are related, but not a letter. If I stick with the 15cm x 15cm square and centreing the designs on top of the bed, I can actually work with 10cm between each piece of embroidery going down and across. There's a slightly larger border at each side than there is at each end. Or I can go with 25 on each side and the bottom and only 20cm at the top (I figure this might be better so there's a bit of quilt to tuck into the end without obscuring any of the stitching).
So I'm thinking option 2 it is. It works, it's balanced, and looks fairly even.
When it comes to themes... I don't actually have access to all my design books and magazines. But one that I do have access to is ABCs for kids. There's a lovely Noah's Ark alphabet sampler in there - each letter has an animal starting with that letter somehow perched on the letter (X and U have footprints - kind of glad there's no unicorn!) and there's a central picture of Noah on the ark with a few animals. Would it look terribly odd if I repeated that little picture of Noah on his ark for both the spare square at the beginning and the end? Or should I search for a different alphabet design that possibly has two extra pictures I could use so there's a different picture/design at beginning and end?
I have to admit to being quite drawn to Noah's Ark. Sam has a love for animals and it's bright and while I can't imagine him still wanting it on his bed as a teenager, I think it will have a fairly broad age-appeal.
Option 2 stood out for me, cause (from what you described) it sounds like the gap between the letters is more even both vertical and horizontal? rather than the other one where there is such a drastic gap difference between the 2. so id be heading towards option 2.
Noahs Arc sounds beautiful! esp. the different animal for each letter. I know my mum (i never shut up about her =P ) has an alphabet sampler thing that has stuff that starts with the letter, but they arent all animals...i know the A is the Aust flag, (cause she did my name for me when i was born). im trying to remember the other ones from what i remember her doing..E is an ecidna...N is a numbat? hmm.. sounds like its an Australia theme one, that makes sense. =) if your interested let me know and ill find pictures for you to check out.
hmm so 2 squares...can you have one of them being Noahs Arc, and the other something completely different like some text saying, made with love by mum or something? (he might not put that on his bed as teenager though if that was there...)...or...his name? or...umm...im out...i will keep thinking about it though!!!
I suspect I may even have the same book that the Australian alphabet came out of. It's one of the ones that I can't get to, but it sounds very familiar. I used a different alphabet (the one with the birds) for the cushions I made for my parents.
I have so many books it's not funny!
If I hadn't already stitched a birth sampler for Sam (unframed, but I ran across it earlier and may just take a picture and add it to the collection some time soon) I'd be tempted to throw in something like that on the square. I know if I was talking about this with my MIL, she'd suggest I design my own thing - I don't have that skill!
I may just have to hassle my DH to get my bookshelf finished so I can get at my other books... or just move a few boxes around so I can get at some of them to have a sticky beak at the other designs I have.
But yeah, I'm also thinking option 2 - I think having it all spread out sideways, but squished up and down would look odd. I was leaning towards option 1 before I started working with measurements, but now that I've done some number crunching, it really does have to be option 2.
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