Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Quilting Frustration

      I took a break from yard work to get back to quilting on the dogwood blossom quilt.  This is the design I came up with for the blossoms. 
 



The blossoms are now quilted but today was filled with thread break frustration.  When I free-motion quilted the light color blossoms yesterday, I had no problem. 


Today I started working on the darker blossoms with a darker pink thread.  I did not have a large spool of that color so I was using a medium size spool.  For some blossoms the thread broke 2 times before I finished that blossom. I wondered whether the multiple layers of fabric for this technique was causing the problem. 

I changed the needle; I changed the feed of the thread.  Nothing helped.  I plan to use the lighter pink thread for background quilting and I sure hope it works well like it did the other day.  I have a lot of background quilting yet to do. 
If you don't remember what the quilt looks like, here it is the before quilting. 


Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Sewing with Granddaughters

    I have not been quilting for the past week because I have been spending time with family and my granddaughters.  I worked with the 7 year old on some hand sewing. She first made herself a turtle bookpack charm.  
Then for Father's Day she made her dad a hamburger charm he can attach to his briefcase.

She enjoys many crafts and wants to make a quilt like grandma but we did not have time this visit.

Especially with the SC heat, I plan to spend time indoors sewing today.

Friday, June 12, 2015

Not Much Sewing

Progress quilting the dogwood quilt has been at a standstill.  All the leaves have been quilted and I have planned and practiced the motif for the blossoms building muscle memory for free-motion quilting. 


I had hoped to have many dogwood blossoms quilted other things have taken priority so not a one has been quilted. 

I did help out with Vacation Bible School for 2 mornings.  I helped hostess Day Bee for my guild, Greater Columbia Quilters.  They gave me some input on another UFO I pulled out.  
I sewed Wednesday for my church group. 


 I have been busy, mostly with non-quilting efforts.  My blueberries are getting ripe and so far I have picked a pint.  There will be lots more. 




Next week I also don’t expect to post any progress since I will be with my granddaughters.  Mattie says she wants to start a quilt.  I hope to chat with her to find out what to plan; maybe a rail fence quilt.  

  

Hope you find some time to play with scraps. 


Sunday, June 7, 2015

Weekend Quilting

      This weekend I have made great progress on my Dogwood quilt.  I got the Dogwood quilt sandwiched and ready for quilting. 

First I quilted with the walking foot in the ditch of the columns and the borders. 

Then I was ready to start free-motion quilting leaf veins.  Two-thirds of the leaves are quilted as I stop for the evening.
Hopefully, I can finish the leaves tomorrow after church Vacation Bible School.  I still have to finalize my plan for the quilting motif on the flowers and background, but I am happy with the leaves. 
Hope you have some time to sew or quilt.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Quilt Scrapbooks

      A few days ago I was not psychologically ready to start quilting the queen size Dogwood top.  When I was teaching the string piecing class at Creative Sewing, I mentioned my quilt scrapbook that was started about 2003.  A student suggested I bring it to class.  When I started, I tried to make fancy page layouts. 


What was one book has expanded to 3; however, since I started my blog, I have not updated them.  I pulled them out and have spent many hours the past few rainy days updating.  I have also learned more about my printer.  

     I have no idea how many quilts I have made.  Maybe someday I will sit down and count.  I had to search for some old photo files and may be missing some.   A couple of years ago I started keeping a separate notebook of charity quilts for tax records.  I have included some donated quilts in my scrapbook because I love the design or the quilting.  I have printed many quilt photos to add, so the updating is almost complete.  Now, I hope to keep them updated.