plenty of panels to practice

A few years ago, if you had told me that I would enjoy quilting pre-printed panels, I would have told you that you were crazy. But here I am... done with my 2nd Dream Big panel and I really did enjoy quilting this.

You see, two big changes have taken place recently that have changed my perspective. First, the quality of digital printing, as well as the graphic design, of these panels has improved drastically. Its been interesting to watch this change in textile printing... we are seeing big changes in digital in just the last year or two. In my humble opinion, this is a good thing... good for the industry and only natural that technology improves.

The second thing that has changed for me is that I have a new longarm and I need to practice. So the act of loading up one of these panels and starting to quilt in a matter of minutes is very satisfying. 

I only quilt using free motion and rulers. No computers. I have a Bernina Q24 longarm that was installed in July.

I used 4 colors of 50 wt. Aurifil thread on this one, 2 blues and 2 purples. I am very happy with the way it turned out.

Below is my first one. For this one I used all 2 colors of silk thread from Superior. The silk thread is really beautiful. I hope to find another project soon and use this thread again. It sewed beautifully. And Superior offers it in a mini cone which is great for longarm quilting. 

For the purple panel, I used Warm & Plush batting. This is all cotton (made by Warm Company) and it has extra loft. This was my first time to use this batting and I love it! The orange panel below I used one layer of Warm & Natural and a layer of wool batting on top of it to get extra loft. It worked really well, but it was so much easier to sew with the Warm & Plush and the results were similar.

The panels are manufactured by Hoffman Fabrics, titled Dream Big. They have sold tons of these and they are available in lots of colors. The size is about 42 inches square. In the spring, Hoffman is coming out with an even bigger panel... 57 inches wide I think. I have one on pre-order.

I think Hoffman, and the others, are catching on to something big here. There are lots of people like me with longarm machines sitting idle while we piece or applique our quilts. So why not invest a few $ in a beautiful panel and quilt it while you continue to working on your "real" quilts. I for one am really enjoying doing just that.